Love That Dirt

MIDWAY THROUGH the first afternoon of play at this year's French Open, the U.S. men had surpassed their collective performance of 2007. Which, granted, wasn't difficult, given that the Yanks failed to win a single match last year at Roland Garros. De-feat of clay, one might have called it. "We set the bar low enough," joked James Blake moments after winning his first match. "It was like playing with house money this year."

But then the hits kept coming. Florida's Mardy Fish won in Paris for the first time in his nine-year career. Robby Ginepri, a 25-year-old Atlantan, reached the fourth round. California's Sam Querrey, who beat former French Open champ Carlos Moy� on clay in April, gave Roger Federer a workout in round 1. And the most pleasant surprise may have been the emergence of Wayne Odesnik. A 22-year-old lefty based in Fort Lauderdale, he entered the draw as a wild card but deployed a grinding, patient, decidedly un-American game to beat Argentina's Guillermo Ca�as, an elite clay-court player, in the first round. Odesnik, who—kiddingly, one assumes—referred to himself as the American Rafael Nadal, won his second match before capitulating to third-seeded Novak Djokovic in straight sets last Friday.

While all the U.S. men, save Ginepri, were eliminated before the second week of play, there was evidence that their recent incompetence on clay might be coming to an end. This is attributable, in part, to the changing surface. Just as the lawns of Wimbledon aren't as fast and slick as they once were (due to thicker grass and denser soil), the "slow clay" of Roland Garros has become a bit of a misnomer. Particularly on hot, dry days—thanks, global warming!—the French Open surface plays almost like dust-coated asphalt.

But this year's results also suggest that if the American men aren't necessarily embracing clay, they're no longer mentally unhinged by it either. Ginepri is right when he asserts that the surface makes unique demands on a player, but in the end tennis is tennis. "Honestly," he says, succeeding on clay is a matter of "just hitting the right shots at the right time, getting the footwork adjusted a little bit better and then playing my game."

This surge comes none too soon. As the nerve center of pro tennis continues to move away from the U.S., competence on clay has never been more important. Besides the French Open, three of the nine high-stakes ATP Masters Series tournaments are played on clay. Plus, so long as the sport's dominant triad—Federer, Nadal and Djokovic—is so proficient on all surfaces, a player who struggles on clay all but forfeits a chance for a high ranking. (Not for nothing is the U.S. Tennis Association exposing top juniors to clay courts at an increasingly early age.)

This fall the American men will be able to gauge how far they've really come on the surface. In the semifinals of the Davis Cup competition, the defending champion U.S. team will take on Spain in Madrid, playing on a surface likely to resemble a sandbox. The visitors will be prohibitive underdogs. But who knows? When the surface gets gritty, maybe the Americans will too.

ONLY AT SI.COM Daily French Open analysis from Jon Wertheim and Justin Gimelstob.