Ahead of the French Open in late May and the European clay season that starts in April, the Australians have a tough task to prove to themselves and others that they can perform well on the surface. Players from the southern peninsular country has a poor record on clay with just four win out of its last ten ties on the surface. Even then, the victory was also against teams that had players whose rankings are outside the top-100 in the world.
To start with, the Aussies will play against Uzbekistan in Namagan next week in the second round of the Davis Cup Asia Oceanic Zone as they seek a place in the World Group. On the other hand, the Fed Cup team will take on Switzerland and seek to redeem their position in the world group after a disappointing loss to the Czech earlier this year.
However, the issue that is of concern to the Aussies is that all the matches are to be played on the clay court, a surface the Australians have struggled to play well on it. Still, the Australian players have to perform well and also win matches if they are to maintain their rankings and prevent from not qualifying for the World Groups. But, with Uzbek team boasting of players such as Denis Istomin and Farrukh Dustov, the Australians certainly do have a tough task ahead of them.
The male members have struggled hard to perform well on the clay court. The country’s no.1 Bernard Tomic has never made beyond a quarter-final which was in Munich last season. The mercurial 20-year-old has a winning record of just 44 percent on the clay court though the youngster has shown remarkable progress over the years.
Mathew Ebden currently stands at 134th in the ATP rankings and also has a poor record on the surface. However, the 25-year-old knows that a good clay season will help him to regain his rankings and definitely into the Roland Garros.
However, the Australians do have a potent weapon in former World World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt with an impressive 96-48 record on the reddish surface. The veteran 2-time Grand Slam champion is also the last Aussie to ever won a title on the surface at Houston, back in 2009. The 32-year-old is definitely a key to Australia’s performance in the upcoming clay court events including the Davis Cup.
On the women’s front, only Sam Stosur remains a force to reckon with. The 28-year-old is looking for the French Open crown which she narrowly missed winning in 2010 where she was the runner-up.
For the other female players, most of them would be fighting hard to boost their rankings and help them qualify for the Roland Garros in late May. That includes the 107th ranked Anastasia Rodionova and the 196th-ranked Jarmila Gajdosova who has 90-53 record on the surface which infact is the best among them. 137th-ranked Casey Dellacqua is another with a potentiality to rise in the WTA rankings. Dellacqua with Rodionova shares a 50 per cent record on the clay and are most likely to be able to break the top-100 before the cut off of the second Grand Slam event.
However, the girls have an important task to accomplish in April when they take on the Swiss in the Fed Cup. The Aussies have won three of their last four matches on clay including a win against the European country they are tied with. This definitely would be a boost for their confidence and with Stosur and Gajdosova, Australia should be able to qualify for the world group again.