It's Clay Time!

Well, not here in the U.S., but in the rest of the tennis world, the red dirt is the surface du jour; it's only 24 days until the French open begins, and with it the annual questions as to why U.S. players have such poor results on clay.

Bonnie DeSimone of ESPN.com got some insight from Jim Courier, who as a two-time winner at Roland Garros, knows of what he speaks.

The posters over at Peter Bodo's TennisWorld are weighing in with their usual acuity. (Don't you love that photo?)

And Joel Drucker, who is now writing a weekly column for CBS Sportsline, opens his new gig with a great piece on this topic. (That Drucker has landed this job is welcome in several ways--there's never enough great reporting and writing in tennis, and its an indication that mainstream sports sites are willing to pay dedicated freelancers to write about tennis again. See DeSimone above and Matt Cronin, who writes regularly for Fox Sports).

Much of these arguments go back to junior tennis of course. The surface you learn the game on is the surface you are likely to feel most comfortable on throughout your playing days. I believe that clay should be much more a part of junior coaching than it is now; I've also even broached the idea that it would make a lot of sense to have the Easter Bowl played on clay, since it leads more naturally into the ITF clay season than does the USTA National Clay Courts played in July. In any case, I'm a fan of tennis on clay, if only because it seems to demand more versatility than other surfaces. But I'm a fan of grass and hard courts too, for what they can reveal about the game at its highest level. It's just that I'd like to see a few familiar faces late in a big tournament this time of year.