Three tournaments were held last week after the Wimbledon fortnight ended, two of them on clay and one on grass in Newport, Rhode Island. On the lawn, it was an all French final as Nicolas Mahut, a 6’ 3” 25 yr old throwback serve-and-volleyer, took on the diminutive 34 yr old veteran Fabrice Santoro, he of the unorthodox, two handed slice shots from both sides, always trying to confuse and surprise his opponents with odd spins and angles rather than pace. If you’ve never seen the ‘French Magician’ as he is called, just imagine a quick little 5’8” guy chasing down balls and then hitting them with underspin, sidespin, and topspin (loves to lob) at the point of retrieval. Santoro won the match to earn his 5th career title and first since Dubai in 2002.

The other two tournaments were on clay – Gstaad, Switzerland and Bastad, Sweden. In Sweden, the Spanish Armada dominated, but none more so than David Ferrer. One of 3 Spaniards in the semi’s, Ferrer beat Filippo Volandri 6-2, 6-1, and then dismantled countryman Nicolas Almagro in the final 6-1, 6-2. Outside of the 2nd round, where he dropped the 2nd set to Nicolas Massu, Ferrer never lost more than 3 games in any match in the tournament on the way to winning his 2nd tournament in 2007 and 4th of his career. In Gstaad, it was another strong showing from the French as 4 Frenchmen made the quarterfinals, led by Paul-Henri Mathieu, who ended up winning his 2nd tournament of the year, beating Italian Andreas Seppi in the final 6-7, 6-4, 7-5. Mathieu’s best season ever continues as he’s now ranked a career high # 23. 20 yr old Gael Monfils, one of the French quarterfinalists, beat top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko in the first round before losing to Mathieu in 3 sets in the quarters. The other two Frenchmen in the quarters, Richard Gasquet and Marc Giquel, lost to Radek Stepanek and Igor Andreev respectively.

The three tournaments this week are in Los Angeles on hardcourts (I’ll be there on Tuesday), Stuttgart, Germany on the clay, and Amersfoort, Netherlands, also on clay. Already, Todd’s Tennis Takes favorite Tommy Robredo has lost in the opening round at Stuttgart – darn those French – as Monfils pulled off the upset.