Andy Roddick questioned the logic of post-Wimbledon clay court tournaments as he readied his bid for a third title in five tries at the 525,000-dollar ATP Indianapolis Championship.
The fifth-ranked American teamed with pal Mardy Fish in a Monday doubles victory, taking every chance to prepare for the US Open which starts in a month on the New York hardcourts. Two Indy seeds were ousted in singles Monday in the US Open tune-up as Canada's Frank Dancevic beat German eighth seed Benjamin Becker 6-4, 6-3 and Germany's Michael Berrer defeated US seventh seed Robby Ginepri 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
But across the Atlantic, the summer European clay season is thriving, with Rafael Nadal winning Stuttgart at the weekend while third-seeded Novak Djokovic is playing in Croatia this week.
Most top names - inlcuding Swiss world number one Roger Federer and Nadal - won't venture onto North American hardcourts until the Montreal ATP Masters event starting in a fortnight. Standard procedure for the household names is to play two Masters events and take a week off prior to the August 27 start of the US Open. Among the top 10, only Roddick, number nine James Blake and Chilean Australian Open finalist Fernando Gonzalez have played during the past two weeks on the hardcourts.