Rafael Nadal- Getty Images

The ATP Tour Hits Rome, Hamburg

April 28, 2008

For the men of the ATP tour, the clay-covered road to Roland Garros is set to run through Rome and Hamburg, where a pair of back-to-back Masters Series events will take place. The Internazionali BNL d'Italia will bring the men to Rome from May 5-11 before they head to Germany for the Masters Series Hamburg one week later.

Much like the French Open, the Internazionali BNL d'Italia has played host to the Rafael Nadal Show for each of the past three years. The 21-year old Spaniard is looking to etch his name on the trophy of the Rome Masters Series event for the fourth consecutive time, having never lost at the tournament.

However, there will be 63 other competitors in the draw looking to ensure that the world’s second-ranked finally succumbs to that first defeat. Fernando Gonzalez, for one, will have something to prove after falling to Nadal in each of the past two years at the event, including a loss in the 2007 Rome final. Meanwhile, like the muscular southpaw known as ‘Rafa,’ fellow countrymen Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya return to the site of a past triumph. Moya claimed the 2004 Rome crown, while Ferrero began the stretch of five Spanish champions in seven years in 2001.

Following Rome, the ATP’s best will head to the Hamburg Masters, where Nadal has not enjoyed the same recent dominance. In his lone appearance at the year’s fifth Masters tournament, he reached the final but fell 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 to world No. 1 Roger Federer, snapping an 81-match clay court winning streak in the process.

Federer has put together a reign of his own in Hamburg, going the distance in each of his past three appearances. In fact, the German event served as the site of the Swiss superstar’s first Masters shield in 2002. Since that time, he owns a 25-1 match record at the tournament.

As is the case with Rome, there will be plenty of challengers nipping at the heels of the top two players in men’s tennis. Tommy Robredo (Spain) will be looking to recapture the title that he earned in 2006 and talented Americans like Andy Roddick, James Blake, and Sam Querrey will be looking to give the tournament its first US champion since Ivan Lendl in 1989.

Regardless of whether it is Nadal, Federer, or another hungry competitor left standing at the end of each of the two events, spectators will certainly be treated to two exciting weeks of tennis leading towards the French Open.