The 2016 Fayez Sarofim U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships are held in Houston, a tournament which has been around for almost 50 years in different American cities. As this is a clay-court surface, you’re going to have to bet on the players accordingly. On the hard surfaces that we’ve seen recently, players who hit the ball with plenty of power succeed. That also includes those who rely on their big serves. However, on clay, you’ll have to look for players who rely on defense and speed a lot more. Those are players who are more likely to do well here. This is a surface that slows down the ball, so it neutralizes the power players who live off of those big baseline groundstrokes. When you’re handicapping the matchups, keep that in mind.
The competition in the 28-player main draw began on Monday, April 4.
Event Details
Event: U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships
Category: ATP 250 Series
Date: April 4 – 10, 2016
Location: River Oaks Country Club – Houston, Texas
The 2016 U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships, like past events, will give American players a chance to win some clay matches in a friendly setting. Americans generally struggle on European red clay, but in this environment against a lesser field, the John Isners, Jack Socks, and Sam Querreys of the world have been able to generate solid results. They hope this will serve as a springboard to bigger and better results in Europe, as the clay swing begins after the early-spring hardcourt finales in Indian Wells and Miami.
With a prize money allotment of $515,025, the purse is quite reasonable for an ATP 250 tournament. Getting to the semifinals or better represents a pretty good week’s work for the money, especially for a top-four seed who has to win only four matches, not five, in order to take the tournament. Some of the players who enter this probably enter it knowing they get an automatic bye, which means an automatically bigger paycheck compared to every first-round match loser.
The points structure in a 250-point tournament offers 250 points towards the winner’s ranking. A runner-up finish is worth 150 points. A semifinal result is 90 points, and a quarterfinal appearance offers 45 points.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2015 – Jack Sock def. Sam Querrey – 7-6, 7-6
2014 – Fernando Verdasco def. Nicolas Almagro – 6-3, 7-6
2013 – John Isner def. Nicolas Almagro – 6-3, 7-5
2012 – Juan Monaco def. John Isner – 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
2011 – Ryan Sweeting def. Kei Nishikori – 6-4, 7-6
Player Info:
John Isner, a regular at this event, is the top seed. Benoit Paire, Feliciano Lopez, and Jack Sock get byes as the top four seeds. The fact that Isner is the top seed tells you quite a bit about who is showing up to this event. It’s not exactly a group of A-listers. We’re not going to see many brand names here, so you’ll have to really do your homework to handicap the matchups.
Rounding out the top eight seeds are Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson, Marcos Baghdatis, and Paolo Lorenzi.
Pullouts from the tournament include Kevin Anderson, Mikhail Kukushkin, Leonardo Mayer, and John Millman. They will be replaced by Dmitry Tursunov, Michael Berrer, Gerald Melzer, and Benjamin Becker. Not a huge difference in quality at the end of the day.
Isner and Sock have done very well here over the years. With byes as top-four seeds, they should be able to win a couple of matches, which will at the very least put them in the semifinals. Baghdatis, the seventh seed, made the finals of the Dubai hardcourt event in February. Can his game translate to clay? That will be an interesting question next week.
River Oaks Country Club
The River Oaks Country Club has hosted this event since 2008. It has a main stadium which seats 3,000 in a cozy and intimate space, surrounded by the oak trees which make the club a landmark in Houston. Some of the seats are bleachers, some of them chairs. The crowd is very close to the players – it’s not an intimidating atmosphere, but a charming one. Houston has hosted the U.S. Clay Court Championships since 2001.
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