The major fallout of grass’s demise as a competitive surface is the lack of a venue for grass court specialists to make a name for themselves.  There are plenty of clay events around, small and large, that let players like Carlos Berlocq make a nice living on the tour.

Let’s quickly talk about the Argentine.  He’s 30 years old.  He’s never been in the top 30.  Even on his beloved clay, he’s never been past the second round of the French Open, or the 2nd round of any Slam.  This is a journeyman of clay, doing well enough to play at the top flights of tennis for more than a decade, occasionally playing doubles to round out his career, as many players do when they don’t find stellar singles success.

He reached the finals of Bastad (apparently pronounced Bo-stad) with nice wins over countryman Zeballos, then Kavcic, Ramos, and de Bakker before facing former top ten, Fernando Verdasco.  Berlocq has never won a singles title on the ATP tour and has only won one doubles title.  Still, something seemed off about Verdasco’s game.  Normally one to hit very hard and take risks, Verdasco seemed content looping balls and hitting ill-advised drop shots.  Berlocq, for his part, just sent one looper after another, retrieving the best he could, and with errors from Verdasco, this strategy worked.

Berlocq took a close first set with featured numerous breaks, then ran  away with the second, winning 7-5 6-1.

But back to this side of the pond.

Nicolas Mahut, aged 31, like Berlocq, had never won a singles title until about a month ago.  Before his famed encounter with John Isner in 2010, few knew about this journeyman.  He had, like Federer, won the junior Wimbledon title, and it turned out that Mahut and grass were meant for each other.  There is some irony that France, the home of clay courts and Roland Garros, produces better fast court players than clay courters.

Mahut’s only final appearances were on grass either at Queen’s or at Newport.  This year, given a wildcard at Wimbledon, Mahut could afford to play s’Hertogenbosh in the Netherlands, an event that is played the week before Wimbledon.  Without the wildcard, Mahut would have had to play qualifying at Wimbledon and skip the event.

Mahut would play the qualies, and drop his only set, to Lukasz Kubot, the other Pole who made it to the quarters of Wimbledon.  He then proceeded through the draw without dropping a set, and eventually beat a Swiss player, although, in this case, the Swiss player was Stan Wawrinka.  That too, ended up being a straight set match.  As both men speak French fluently, Wawrinka was able to congratulate Mahut on his title, his first on tour.

Mahut’s strengths are a big serve, being able to serve and volley as needed, and to take chances on grass.  He’s not the steadiest player, but he’ll gamble with a hard shot and it often pays off.

Mahut was about to relive the kind of meeting he hoped that famous Isner match would have been.  Rather than a marathon match played in the first round on an outer court, both Mahut and Isner were on target to meet each other in the finals of Newport.  Mahut had the decidedly easier route.  For Isner to reach the finals, he would have to go through oft-injured giant, Ivo Karlovic, in what has to be the match of the tallest players ever to play the sport.  Naturally, Isner won it in two tiebreaks.

Isner had played Lleyton Hewitt, his semifinal opponent, in the previous year’s final which Isner won.  Due to rain, the semis on Saturday was washed out.  About the only event to complete was the induction ceremony for the Tennis Hall of Fame that saw Ion Tiriac, Charlie Pasarell, Martina Hingis, and Cliff Drysdale on hand to receive their plaques.

Thus, both the semis and finals were played Sunday.  Mahut finished his match quickly, in a little over an hour, beating Michael Russell, a 35 year old journeyman from the US.  Isner took the first set against Hewitt, but found it difficult to hold serve, dropped the second set 6-2, and then couldn’t muster enough for the third set, which Hewitt won 6-4.  This match lasted a bit over 2 hours, and in contrast to the rain from the previous day, Sunday was hot.

Hewitt would have to come out on court about 2 hours later to play Mahut.  And for a bit, Hewitt looked the better player and won the first set, 7-5.  Hewitt got up a late break in the second set, and was ready to serve it out at 5-4.  But several double faults later, and he had given up the break to Mahut.  Hewitt would play another bad game to give up his serve a second time, and lose the set, 7-5.

The third set was similar to the second.  Hewitt got up a break early, but Mahut came back with two breaks of serve, and for the second time in a little over a month, Mahut won his second title, and for that matter, his second title on grass.

Hewitt’s last title, as it turns out, was also on grass.  That was in Halle where he beat Roger Federer in 3 sets.  Since then, Hewitt has had a drought of titles.  Had he won, he would have added his name to the over 30 set that have won titles this year.

Mahut thanked the tournament for giving him a wildcard into the event, and so he won as a wildcard.

Next week: Federer returns to tour.