by Richard Pagliaro, Tennis Week, FOXSports.com

Comment

American men were shut out of the 2007 Roland Garros as nine Americans — Andy Roddick, James Blake, Amer Delic, Justin Gimelstob, Robby Ginepri, Robert Kendrick, Sam Querrey, Michael Russell and Vince Spadea — bit the dust in the opening round of the 2007 French Open collectively combining to create a piece of ignominius history: it was the worst Grand Slam performance by American men in 34 years.

When Rome semifinalist Roddick — the best clay-court competitor of this American class with five career clay-court titles to his credit — pulled out of the French Open suffering from a strained shoulder, U.S. men's hopes for a shred of success in Paris seemed as likely as Querrey playing leap frog over the Eiffel Tower, the collected rap works of Spadea being taught as a credit course at the Sorbonne or John Isner taking the court clad in a Quasimodo costume.

The red clay of Paris has been a sink hole for single American men (twins Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan won the French Open doubles title in 2004 and have reached the final in three of the past five years) since 1999 French Open champion Andre Agassi advanced to his third consecutive quarterfinal in 2003. You can count on two hands the number of American men who have reigned at Roland Garros: Don Budge (1938), Don McNeill (1939), Frankie Parker (1948-49), Budge Patty (1950), Tony Trabert (1954-55), Michael Chang (1989), Jim Courier (1991-92) and Agassi.

Not only were Americans losing, they were losing quickly: In nine losses last year American men combined to win just seven sets.

The completion of the French Open draw last week provided two inevitable conclusions for Americans: Querrey, who earned a reputation as one of America's best clay-court hopes in reaching the Monte Carlo quarterfinals last month, would likely barely have time to get his socks stained with dirt in drawing two-time finalist Roger Federer in the first round and at least one American man would reach the second round by virtue of Ginepri drawing Donald Young in the opening round.

Things had grown so bleak for U.S. men that the standard over-under bet had become, "Who will win more French Open matches combined, the Williams sisters or all the American men?"

In what has been one of the highest profile positions for American sport in the City Of Light since Paris leaders draped the French Statue of Liberty in a Tony Parker jersey to celebrate the San Antonio Spurs' 2005 NBA Championship, six American men — Blake, Mardy Fish, Ginepri, Wayne Odesnik and Bobby Reynolds — advanced to the second round.

Actually, Odesnik went one step further. The left-handed wild card followed up his 7-6(6), 7-6(3), 7-6(8) triumph over 29th-seeded Guillermo Coria with today's 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 triumph over veteran Hyung-Taik Lee. Odesnik's French feel-good story will likely climax in the third round when he takes on third-seeded Novak Djokovic, but regardless of the outcome he can walk away from his Roland Garros debut with his best career Grand Slam result.

Fish, who won the 2006 Houston title on clay, beat Agustin Calleri, 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 and will face Lleyton Hewitt in a second-round rematch of their riveting Indian Wells encounter in March, which Fish won 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(4).

Winless in five career French Open appearances, the 88th-ranked Ginepri finally broke through with today's 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Young. The red clay road becomes rocky in the second round for Ginepri, who will face 27th-seeded Russian Igor Andreev next. Andreev, whose claim to fame is he's one of the few men on the planet with a clay-court victory over Rafael Nadal (Andreev beat Nadal in straight sets in the 2005 Valencia quarterfinals), bounced Roddick from the opening round of Roland Garros last year.

The 104th-ranked Reynolds topped Thierry Ascione, 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and meets Nicolas Lapentti next.

Blake, who partnered Fish to reach the Hamburg Masters Series doubles semis where they fell to their friends the Bryans, has a legitimate shot to register his best Roland Garros result by reaching the fourth round.

The seventh-seeded Blake plays Ernests Gulbis next after dispatching Rainer Schuettler, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6(3). The solid first-round showing was not lost on Blake, who has spent recent years fielding more than his fair share of "What's wrong with American tennis?" questions.

"We've already done more (than last year)," a smiling Blake said after beating Schuettler. "We set the bar low enough that we're over the bar by 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. It was a tough situation last year, but now maybe it's just like playing with house money this year."

That currency may run out rather quickly for the American men still standing in the singles draw, but in a fast food nation where the concept of a leisurely lunch for many Americans is walking to the counter of McDonald's rather than cruising through the Drive Thru, the first-round wins is a source of instant gratification for a nation famished for French success.

American struggles on clay are often characterized from the waist down: most Americans don't grow up playing on clay and the concept of sliding is as foreign to our players as the Euro is to a Coke machine. Many have advocated the theory that Americans will not contend at Roland Garros until U.S. elite player development, now led by former French Open doubles champion Patrick McEnroe, stresses training on clay. And that may be true, however when you look at the most recent U.S. French Open champions — Agassi (1999), Jennifer Capriati (2001) and Serena Williams (2002) — ask yourself: what is the common denominator?

All three are outstanding ball strikers who basically successfully translated a hard-court style of play to clay.

Granted, they are three exceptional talents and all three rose to the No. 1 ranking. But the lesson of those three is a major reconstruction on clay is not a prerequisite to winning. None of those three reconstructed their styles to suit the slow surface, but all three made revisions to adapt.

Agassi played with a little more height on his shots and consistently used his kick serve wide on both sides to set up his first groundstrokes. Capriati — at her best the premier down the line diva of her day — played with a bit more patience in producing cross-court combinations to create the opening before driving the ball down the line. Serena, often unfairly typecast as simply a power player, showed more subtlety in her shot selection in working the width of the court rather than solely the depth. At times, during her run to the 2002 title, Williams' sharp-angle backhand cross-court recalled Monica Seles' expert exploration of short-angle clay-court tennis.

In short, all three continued to play to their strengths with minor modifications, all three were willing to do the required red clay dirty work in playing smart, tough, tenacious tennis. Those are qualities that sometimes elude American men who have too often treated clay the way Marcelo Rios once approached post-match press conferences: as a necessary nuisance they attempted to abbreviate.

This year's French Open — combined with Querrey's effort in Monte Carlo and Roddick and Blake's results in Rome — may serve as a small step forward.

Then again American men could bite the dust within the next 48 hours, but there's still a strong possiblility of an American presence in the final four thanks to the Bryan brothers or Williams sisters.

And if all the Americans in Paris meet the same dusty demise then console yourself with this thought: grass-court season is just around the corner.