"People say, 'Americans, they're not that good on the red clay, ' " Oudin said.
Rooms are styled silver and pewter tones with moss green and red clay color accents.
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Nadal was playing on red clay, which for him is like wrapping himself in a childhood blanket.
"A large part of my heart still resides in the red clay of this place, " notes Robert Shipper.
Giraffes ignored us as they ambled gracefully across the red clay road.
It was grilled in a ketsi, a red clay dish, over an open fire, weighted down by heavy river stones.
In another sign of the devastation, a nearby mountain showed two streaks of red clay apparent mudslides that appeared to have wiped out all vegetation.
Kazakhstan has a training center in Astana, the country's capital, where Shvedova trained for the French Open on new indoor red clay courts.
Earlier, Sharapova, the second seed on the red clay in the Italian capital, had fought off a tenacious challenge from American Christina McHale.
The Serbian, seeded three, slipped behind the baseline at 5-5 in the opening set and rolled over in the red clay on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The most obvious short-term goal is the French Open in Paris, also on red clay, where Nadal has won a remarkable seven times, including last year.
The Swiss world number two had 13 grand slam successes to his name prior to the event, but none of them had been on the Parisian red clay.
He has won 39 straight matches on the red clay at Real Club de Tenis, his last loss coming 10 years ago to Spain's Davis Cup captain, Alex Corretja.
The Bryans, meanwhile, are 9-0 as a team on red clay in Davis Cup, and paired with Isner or Fish, have another three wins on red clay in three tries.
He came to Paris with little experience on red clay, no experience at the French Open and a Chipotle addiction so strong that he has no interest in fine French cuisine.
Isner's last four best-of-five matches on red clay are defeats of Federer, French top-15 players Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon, and a gutsy loss to Nadal at last year's French Open.
Any Americans still uncomfortable on the red clay will feel more at home: For the first time, Madrid will be using blue clay, much like the color of the U.S. Open courts.
World No. 19 Juan Monaco, Argentina's No. 1 in the absence of Juan Martin del Potro, gave his country a lifeline by beating 13th-ranked Gilles Simon 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 6-4 on the red clay.
In the semifinals, they beat the Spanish duo of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez that could face the Bryans in the Spain-U.S. Davis Cup tie in September, which likely will be held on red clay.
They have not met since Nadal won last year's French Open final -- his record seventh title on the red clay of Roland Garros -- and the Spaniard holds a 19-14 career advantage in their matches.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams displayed her best form in roughly 18 months in winning at Charleston on green clay earlier this month, then led the U.S. Fed Cup team to a 5-0 sweep on red clay in Ukraine this past weekend, earning the team a berth in the World Group next year.
We hit it, the steering wheel went dead and the car began to glide, ghosting toward the shoulder, which looked about four feet wide and well below the surface of the new blacktop it was a big drop-off of five or six inches and the shoulder was red clay drenched with rain.
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The traditional opener to Europe's red-clay season has become one of the Bryans' favorites spots.
Since the start of the red-clay season in 2007, though, they've won eight Masters titles on the dirt.
Through his open windows, Christenberry could smell the red Alabama clay and survey the cotton fields occasionally dotted with weather-beaten buildings.
To that end, both the 3, 000-square-foot, three-bedroom house and the 16, 000-square-foot winery are clad in ancient-looking limestone siding and topped with red-clay roof tiles imported from France.
Louis, a chic oasis with top-notch treatments (for an additional fee) such as the caviar serum facial, a Balinese massage, and a clay and red-grape body wrap known as the di-vine wine all guaranteed to leave you positively luminescent by day's end.
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