A Chance for the Vets

The Latin American stretch of the tennis season always catches me a little off guard -- a (mostly) clay court teaser before the players really make the switch to dirt post-Indian Wells and Miami. The events don't always attract the top players, but that doesn't mean there aren't a ton of challenges out there. And the players who show up really have the opportunity to shine -- and this time, it's not just the youngsters making an impact.

Not too surprisingly, the upsets began early in Monterrey, with Roberta Vinci, Alexandra Dulgheru and Gisela Dulko all failing to make it past the second round. And while Australian Open standout Sara Errani and recently resurgent Sorana Cirstea are still alive, for the time being, there are again some underdogs out there ready to bite.

Patricia Mayr-Achleitner has been around for what seems like ages, but hasn't ever made a big dent on Tour. An ITF titleist fourteen times during her career, the best she's ever done on the WTA was a runner-up showing last year in Bad Gastein. But after her defeat of Dulko and a smashing of Eva Birnerova earlier today, her draw is opening up. She'll next face either Cirstea or Timea Babos, having her own coming out party these days, but at an event where anything really can happen, she has a real shot going even further.

Ranked just outside the top hundred -- a few spots behind Mayr -- twenty-six year old Nina Bratchikova is responsible for the bigger upset in Monterrey, taking out #1 seed Vinci in their second round. Though she's been around for over a decade, she's never made a big crack into the double digits, but this was her second top twenty-five win of the year, having beaten Flavia Pennetta in her Melbourne opener, and could help her move to a new all-time high in her career, whatever happens next. And with a quarterfinal date with super-veteran Greta Arn, a woman who she's only played once -- in 2005 -- there's a good chances she might really break through in Mexico.

The big upsets didn't start until today in Buenos Aires. After seven of the eight seeds made it through early rounds, Gilles Simon, Juan Monaco and Fernando Verdasco all lost Thursday, each in straight sets. While Nicolas Almagro still has a shot at winning his second title of the Golden Swing, the door swung open for some others to sneak through too.

Qualifier Igor Andreev hasn't won a title since 2005, but his first main draw matches here have been reminiscent of the play that helped him nearly beat John Isner last year in Miami. After beating Verdasco today, dropping just three points on his first serve, he should be able to give even defending champion Almagro -- against whom he has a solid 4-3 record, two of those wins coming on clay -- a run for his money.

But fellow veteran David Nalbandian might have something to say about that. The one-time #3 in the world has struggled with injuries over the last few seasons, but comes to Argentina after a tough five-setter versus Isner in Australia and an upset of Gilles Simon in Brazil. Facing his countryman, up-and-comer Carlos Berlocq, in the quarters, he has a much less intimidating road through the draw now. And if he keeps it up, he might be able to give a couple of elite a fight for the rest of the year.

With so many new stars coming onto the scene, the ones with the most experience can often be overshadowed. But this week there's plenty of veteran power shining through among the youngsters. And as the fields get narrowed, the opportunity for even bigger success may never look better.

An End to the Dry Spell

We're just about ready to make the full shift to the summer hardcourt season, and as the dust from the soon-to-be abandoned clay settles, a couple players brushed the cobwebs off themselves as they made the return to the winner's circle this weekend.

Two-time French Open finalist Robin Soderling has been a little quiet on Tour since the early part of the year, when he captured three titles in four events. And though he was the top seed in Bastad, he had a tough road with players like Potito Starace and Tomas Berdych in his path. Still he was able to advance to the final without dropping a set and made surprisingly quick work of David Ferrer in Sunday's championship. Only dropping three points on his first serve and limiting his opponent to less than thirty percent on the return, he was able to lift the trophy in his homeland for the second time and claim his first title since February -- not exactly a drought, but a bit of a relief given how absent he was from the winner's podium during his best part of the year.

Anabel Medina Garrigues had been mired in a slightly longer dry spell, losing a slew of first round matches over the last eighteen months, but she finally won her first title in almost two years this past April in Estoril. She's climbed her way back into the top forty since then and earned the fifth seed in Palermo, where she avenged a semifinal loss to Irina-Camelia Begu in the third round. With many of the higher-ranked players eliminated for her, she marched to the final without much drama and summarily ended Bastad champion Polona Hercog's nine-match win streak in about eighty minutes. The victory -- her fifth in Palermo -- made Anabel the winning-est clay court player still active on Tour, surpassing Venus Williams with her tenth title on the dirt. Not a bad way to remind us all she's still a force to be reckoned with.

The same can be said for the action in Stuttgart last week, where uber-veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero was trying to make his latest career comeback. Since knee and wrist surgery late last year, he's only played a handful of matches in 2011, making a nice run in Barcelona, but skipping the Majors, and has seen his ranking fall back out of the top eighty. JCF is not a man to be ignored, however, and though he was unseeded in Germany, he handled his biggest challenge in world #17 Mikhail Youzhny and never looked back. Against quickly rising Pablo Andujar in the final, Ferrero took advantage of weak serving and seven double faults, blanking his countryman in the second set. It was his first crown since last July and, at thirty-one years of age, the latest announcement that the Spaniard is still relevant.

A little further east in Bad Gastein, the draw had been opened early, but it was really some seasoned talent that made its way through the week. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who reached a career high rank of #19 in the world after a title in Rome last year, had struggled to rebound from a knee injury and didn't progress past a second round this year until Wimbledon. In Austria she battled through a close first round against qualifier Paula Ormaechea, but saw largely smooth sailing after that. In Sunday's final against Patricia Mayr-Achleitner, she fired off nine aces and, though she missed a bunch of first serves herself, she broke her opponent six times in nine return games, securing her first championship in over a year.

As these ladies and gentlemen next move to U.S. Open prep, it's encouraging to see them each show they can still make an impact. Whether that translates into more titles this year is yet to be seen. But a return to the spotlight for each at least ensures that no one will take them lightly.