The prestigious clay court events for all the top women in the world is fast approaching and the real Roland Garros contenders will start to make their moves to assert themselves among the greats in the coming weeks.
One player that has made a considerable improvement in the last twelve months is the Spanish No. 1 Carla Suarez-Navarro and there’s many an argument to consider her as one of the candidates for this year’s coveted prize in the Parisian Sunshine–the Roland Garros trophy.
In just 12 months Suarez-Navarro has propelled herself into a well-respected Top 10 player instead of the type of player that fluctuates between the Top 20 and 30 of the world for quite some time; she’s now bringing the results against the very top players of women’s professional tennis, to a fore and on her beloved clay surface, that she be no different.
The biggest improvement that Carla has made to her game inside the last few months is her big game ability when under intense pressure at the top level against the big names. In my opinion that started against Maria Sharapova in Canada at the US hard court swing of last year; that’s when I first started taking note of her as a serious tennis player. That match demonstrated what she’d been missing in between the ears for quite some time and also managed to represent another hard fought victory away from her red clay, which in the grand scheme of things means a great deal more if she aims to be a stalwart in the Top 10 for quite some time. She’ll need those sort of results on most of the slowly drilled hard court surfaces that seem to dominate the full WTA schedule both indoor and outdoor for the majority of the year.
Looking at Carla Suarez-Navarro’s improvement in numbers sees her head to head record against Top 10 opponents improve drastically. In 2011 and 2012 she managed just two Top 10 wins to the six losses, while inside the first four months of the season in 2015 she’s already attained a 5-3 record against the mighty Top 10. That reflects a huge improvement in a handful of years, but more significantly she’s playing the Top 10 with more regularity and with more regularity comes more experience that prepares her for what is to come in the business ends of Premier Tournaments and, more significantly, Grand Slam tournaments.
In 2015, Carla, who possesses one of the best and few one-handed backhanders in the women’s game, has only failed to make the quarterfinal of a tournament in one event this year, further displaying the consistency that Xavier Budo has instilled in her game while working with her for a number of years. She started taking her tennis seriously in 2005, where she started working with the Spanish Federation; that’s where she would later link up with Xavier Budo in 2007 in the Barcelona-based academy Pro-Ab Team Tennis.
Lest we not forget that Suarez-Navarro hasn’t just appeared on the tennis radar in the last few months. In her first grand slam tournament she made the quarterfinals of Roland Garros, which included a win over World #1 and idol of Carla’s, Amelie Mauresmo, in one of the shock results of the tournament. As the years have rolled by more tennis aficionados are recognizing just what Carla brings to a clay court and just why she should never be underestimated in Paris, because the pros and cons of a clay court is well-suited to the strengths that she has on display.
Carla is dangerous when she is given time to do what she wants and swing away with her beautiful one-handed backhand. With longer rallies naturally occurring on a clay court, particularly in Rome at the Internazionali di Italia and on Phillippe Chatrier at Roland Garros, it gives Carla the opportunity to do what she wants–more importantly with more time to send angled backhands left and right. Her trademark naturally is the backhand angled cross-court when she works the dimension of the court, which in turn is most effective on clay as she can maneuver her way around the typical clay court.
I would go as far as saying she is one of the best movers on a clay court in the current crop of players inside the Top 100 as it stands, alongside Simona Halep and Sara Errani. Once a professional tennis player masters the modern art of sliding on a red clay court, 75% of the work towards becoming a formidable tennis player on this surface is done. Just look at how Maria Sharapova demonstrated this with her two Roland Garros titles after mastering the way she maneuvered her body on this particular tennis court.
In 2015, the normal list of players will be in contention for the Roland Garros spoils but don’t count Carla Suarez-Navarro out. Especially if she gets a favorable draw–which is possible with a Top 10 seeding, it’s likely we might just see more of her in the business end of a Grand Slam again.
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