Roland Garros Day 11: Almagro

Curtain Call

Player: Nicolas Almagro

Nation: Spain

Age: 24

Current Ranking: 21

Notable Conquest: Fernando Verdasco (7th seed, Spain)

Tour Page

Today's Result: loss to Rafael Nadal (2nd, Spain) in straight sets

It's more than a little surprising that Almagro has never gotten past the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. On the week-to-week tour, he's one of the best clay court players in the world. He has five tournament titles for his career, all of them on clay. But he's never made much noise at the Slams compared to his compatriots such as Verdasco, Lopez, Ferrer or, of course, Nadal. As such, the win over Verdasco must have felt pretty good. Fernando had been one of the hottest players coming into the tournament. Losing to Rafa puts him in good company, to be sure. Still, it would be nice to see him make a deeper run at some point.

But for today, a job well done, sir. Take your bow.

Sam Stosur's victory over Serena Williams guarantees a first time Slam winner on the women's side: very exciting!