[soulage]

The clay season is coming



The best surface for Arno for sure

Schedule :

Week 14 : Casablanca
Week 15 : Monte-Carlo Qualies
Week 16 : Barcelona
Week 17 : Rome Qualies ????
Week 18 : Belgrade
Week 19 : Bordeaux TBC
Week 20 : Exhibition in Paris Country Club
Week 21 : Roland-Garros

Arnaud won't go in Munich this year, he never win a match there lol. He had choosen the new tournament of the Djoko family .

[Kezzi]

The tournament stolen from us
Not that I blame the Djoko family, it's the tournament organization which let the stealing happen

[Marine]

The clay season is coming, that's not the period to hope better than 2 rounds in a row.

[soulage]

No, clay is the time for loosing against unknown guy and since we have more doubles to follow it's more sad.

If we exclude qualies & challengers it's now more than 6 month it hasn't happen. He had won two match in a row on main tour two times last year in Wim and S'Hert. As the confidence, the frustration can fastly coming for Arno and i'm quite fear for the clay season.

He will have 1144 point in next ranking but in this there are 606 coming from grass 2008 and 82 from clay 2008 He absolutly needs to win many points before july otherwise he will be again #150 and i'm not sure the come back from last year can be repeated Indeed he needs to win a tournament He entered a lot of event surely because of that but it will also need very ggod draw and to do upsets.

Come'on guy it"s now or never

[Via]

the change in the points system this year isn't going to help... he has to do well in larger tournaments, it's not much use accumulating a few points here and there, when the grass points come off.

it's hard to imagine which larger clay tournament will give him a miracle... but yes, it's perhaps now or never!!!

[Truc]

The exhibition the week before Roland-Garros is confirmed:
NADAL ET FEDERER AU PARIS COUNTRY CLUB. – Rafael Nadal et Roger Federer seront les grosses têtes d’affiche d’une exhibition organisée au Paris Country Club (Rueil-Malmaison) la semaine précédant Roland-Garros. L’Espagnol et le Suisse auront pour principaux adversaires Stanislas Wawrinka, Arnaud Clément, Julien Benneteau, Marat Safin, James Blake et David Nalbandian.

[soulage]

No french musketeers here only Bennet & Arnaud for france Btw Arno will play doubles with Bennet' in Casablanca.

[Via]

Originally Posted by Truc

The exhibition the week before Roland-Garros is confirmed:
NADAL ET FEDERER AU PARIS COUNTRY CLUB. – Rafael Nadal et Roger Federer seront les grosses têtes d’affiche d’une exhibition organisée au Paris Country Club (Rueil-Malmaison) la semaine précédant Roland-Garros. L’Espagnol et le Suisse auront pour principaux adversaires Stanislas Wawrinka, Arnaud Clément, Julien Benneteau, Marat Safin, James Blake et David Nalbandian.

what a cross-section of players here! lol

you can't say it's well supported by home players, so i suppose they just have to get arnaud in

[soulage]

Arnaud is seed this week, it was a long time he hasn't been but bad draw. First round Ljubicic who he's not the same as in the past of course but he did quarter in IW and had beaten Arno in their last 6 meetings . If Arno wins he could get Gil who is on fire since few weeks. Well tough quarter. Bennet had withdrawn so Arno should not play doubles, i feel a bad week


CLEMENT, Arnaud (FRA, 8) vs LJUBICIC, Ivan (CRO)
MARTIN, Alberto (ESP) vs GIL, Frederico (POR)
Q vs Q
EL AMRANI, Reda (MOR, WC) vs MONTANES, Albert (ESP, 3)

[Via]

Originally Posted by soulage

Arnaud is seed this week, it was a long time he hasn't been but bad draw. First round Ljubicic who he's not the same as in the past of course but he did quarter in IW and had beaten Arno in their last 6 meetings . If Arno wins he could get Gil who is on fire since few weeks. Well tough quarter. Bennet had withdrawn so Arno should not play doubles, i feel a bad week


CLEMENT, Arnaud (FRA, 8) vs LJUBICIC, Ivan (CRO)
MARTIN, Alberto (ESP) vs GIL, Frederico (POR)
Q vs Q
EL AMRANI, Reda (MOR, WC) vs MONTANES, Albert (ESP, 3)

thanks for the news soulage

i haven't really followed tennis since the aus open

with this draw i'm surprised though, given the quality of his opponents... how come he's still ranked above them?

[soulage]

He plays Ljubicic tomorrow at 1.00pm local time on the center court and he found Allegro to play double with him, Allegro won no matches this year even helped by roger in IW .

[Marine]

"He found"
Something lets me think he won't stay a long time in Casa.

ps: merci soulage pour les infos, toujours au taquet !

[soulage]

6-7(6)/7-5/4-6 in three hours.

Frustrating. Ivan was winable and without his serve, 16 aces, he would have been beaten. I missed some games when i come back home but saw most part of the match.

1set: Both saved 1 BP on their opening service game and then held easily until 5-6 where Arno had to save 2 MP. Tie-break: Ivan hit 3 aces on his 3 first serves and was up 5-1 but Arno come back to 5-5 to made a DF. He saved an other MP on Ivan's serve to finally lose on his own serve .

2set: Arnaud was very frustrated and went to 40-00 down on his serve in opening game. He saved only two. while Ivan was serving for the set Arno broke back and broke again to close the set. From 3-5 to 7-5 .

3set: Arno was broken at 1-1. At 3-5, he saved 2 MP but no miracle then, Ljubicic closed the match 6-4.

It was not an horrible first match on clay but Ivan was not really good and against clay players he will suffer. Casabanca was an open tournament the others will be tough for him. Well an other loose in first round . The clay season will be really painful to follow.

1set outfit



2nd set outfit



3rd set outfit



And a zoom on face



And from official website

[soulage]

According Tennis Mag Arnaud should play Bordeaux challenger instead of Madrid's qualies. They writes that many french players are waited like Serra of course but also Clement and maybe Llodra.

Tomorrow he plays doubles, it's last match on court 3

[soulage]

Allegro est vraiment pas très bon lol They were 5-1 30-00 on Allegro's serve and lost the first set 6-7 always in trouble in Allegro's serve indeed.With a good partner he would have go far sure. Casablanca was the unlucky tournament, a poor draw, a poor doubles partner.



The qualies of MC begin saturday, he will be seed but with all the good clay players between 75-150 it's not very useful. I refuse to believe he could go through it's too irreal . Benneteau and Arno are waiting for a doubles WC but with all the stars in MC it's not sure http://sport.aol.fr/benneteau-une-su...7d2b-a-p1.html