The likable veteran captured a Challenger title on Sunday in Chiasso, Switzerland, where El Aynaoui defeated top-seeded Alberto Martin in the final 7-6(2), 6-3. En route to—and including—the championship match El Aynaoui took out most of the biggest names in the field, among them seventh-seeded Dominik Meffert in the second round, Simon Greul in the quarterfinals, and No. 2 seed Nicolas Devilder in the semifinals. Obviously none of those guys are household names at the ATP level, but all of them have seen action main draws of ATP events recently.

What makes his performance last week all the more impressive is that it was El Aynaoui's second title in as many events in 2008. He won a Futures tournament in Spain back in March. That’s right; a minor blip in Davis Cup two weeks ago not withstanding, the 36-year-old has not lost a match this season.

Is he ready to bring his flamboyant game back to the big stages? Well, probably not since ranking is down to around 300 in the world. Tennis fans, however, would love such a return, as El Aynaoui was a fan favorite in his heyday and he is still remembered fondly for one of the greatest matches ever played: a 21-19 in the fifth set loss to Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals of the 2003 Australian Open.

Whatever happens from this point on, what El Aynaoui has done so far in 2008 is a triumph for both himself and for 30-something-year-olds everywhere.

Nikolay Davydenko retired after three games of the second set in his Estoril title match against Roger Federer, but it looks like he’ll be good to go for Monte-Carlo.

Nikolay Davydenko had to call it quits down a set and up 2-1 in the second in the Estoril Open final against Roger Federer on Sunday. "I have a little injury and I can't finish the match," Davydenko explained to the fans seated at courtside regarding a leg problem. "I'm sorry guys."

 "I'm sorry about what happened today," Davydenko told the crowd during the post-match ceremony.

It was an interesting pairing, the 19-year-old Gulbis from Latvia and the 31-year-old Schuettler of Germany. It was an even more interesting doubles match, which did not come as a surprise since all four men on the court were primarily singles players. Cross-court baseline rallies usually not seen in doubles were almost the norm, and often times teams returned serve with both players at the back of the court.

As a result, four breaks of serve took place in the first eight games. The decisive break came with Granollers-Pujol serving at 5-6, deuce. Under the no-ad scoring system, it was the deciding point of the game and therefore set point for Gulbis and Schuettler. After a brief baseline rally with Gulbis, Granollers-Pujol sent a forehand long to throw away the set.

Although the unorthodox doubles tactics continued into the second set, the quality of tennis soared and the breaks of serve diminished. Neither team could gain an advantage, but finally Gulbis and Schuettler got out to a 40-0 lead on Granollers-Pujol’s serve at 4-5, therefore holding four match points. All four, however, were squandered.

Cuevas and Granollers-Pujol then had two break points on Gulbis’ serve in the 5-5 game, but those chances were denied when Gulbis saved the deuce point with some nifty hand-work at the net. Gulbis and Schuettler really dominated play with more aggressive tennis in the second set even though it was not reflected in the score, so it was not a big surprise that they had little trouble in the tiebreaker.

For Gulbis, this was both his first final and first title of any kind on the ATP Tour. It also helped avenge a disappointing effort against Granollers-Pujol in the first round of the singles event. "I'm happy because I wasn't satisfied at all with my singles performance,” Gulbis said. “It was my first tournament on clay and it was tough for me to go from the hard court season to clay. But I'm happy I played better and better every match in doubles.”

Granollers-Pujol, enjoying an amazing week, can still notch a title—and an even bigger one—if he upsets top-seeded James Blake in Sunday’s singles final. The Spaniard had not lost a set until his semifinal match with Wayne Odesnik, in which he saved to match points in the second set before winning in three.

“I hoped we would have the chance to play Spain,” McEnroe. “It’s the ultimate challenge, on slow red clay. I think we can do it. We’re the underdogs but I welcome the opportunity.”

To say they are underdogs would be a gross understatement. That was the case when McEnroe said those words last weekend and that’s certainly the case now, seeing what the Spanish contingent is doing in Valencia this week.

Fifth-seeded Nicolas Almagro has made his way to the final and he has not even lost a set in four matches. He is without question one of the best players in the world on clay right now, having two titles already this season on the red stuff and one win away from another. Oh yeah, and he probably won’t even crack Spain’s Davis Cup lineup. Almagro’s opponent in the final? None other than David Ferrer, who slumped on the U.S. hard courts but is back on track on the Valencia clay. Ferrer has been forced to go the distance in two of his four matches, and not surprisingly it was two other Spaniards (Fernando Verdasco, who even held match points, and Tommy Robredo) who extended him to three sets.

It’s hard to imagine Andy Roddick and James Blake winning two of four singles rubbers on clay against any of the aforementioned Spaniards (three of four is necessary if the Bryan Brothers lose to a probable doubles team of Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez). But wait, I haven’t even mentioned Spain’s team leader yet; world No. 2 and one of the best clay-court players ever, Rafael Nadal, who is resting up this week for the more important Masters Series events.

While it’s hard to take McEnroe seriously when he said he wanted a chance to play Spain on dirt, you have to respect his apparent confidence. It’s confidence he probably no longer has if he is paying any attention to the proceedings in Valencia.

As bad as that was, it wasn’t much better than their 2006 French Open campaign. Only James Blake advanced to the second round (before losing to Gael Monfils in the third round).

Will this year be any different? Any number of pages could be written on this subject, but for now let’s just take this week’s results as an indication.

Most of the American men who played this week—11 of them—were in Houston, Texas for the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. Two, top-seeded James Blake and unseeded Wayne Odesnik, still remain. Overall the Americans have compiled a solid 12-9 match record. Less than half (five) lost in the first round, and at least on of them had to lose in the first round since an all-American battle between Odesnik and Amer Delic took place. Of the four who lost to foreigners, none—in my estimation—were favored to win. Robby Ginepri fell to Dudi Sela, Sam Querrey lost to clay-court specialist Nicolas Massu, big man John Isner was taken on by Argentine Sergio Roitman, and another dirt-balling Argentine, Agustin Calleri, smoked Vincent Spadea.

Surprise American winners in the first round included 15-year-old Ryan Harrison and to a lesser extent Donald Young. Harrison obviously will not be in this year’s French Open, but his play certainly bodes well for the future. The biggest surprise has been Odesnik, who scored impressive wins over Sela and Roitman after taking out Delic. It would a be a huge step if he upset clay master Marcel Granollers-Pujol in Saturday’s semifinals, but either way Odesnik looks like he could at least win one match at Roland Garros as long as he does not get a horrific draw.

As for the two biggest American names in Houston—Blake and Mardy Fish—it has been promising. Fish relies on huge serving, big groundstrokes to overcome less than stellar movement, so the fact that he won two matches on clay this week is great for his confidence on the dirt. Losing to Oscar Hernandez in the quarterfinals had to be considered expected, and Fish at least took one set to a tiebreaker. Blake, meanwhile, got revenge for an earlier loss to Kei Nishikori in the first round, taught Harrison a lesson in the second, and erased Calleri, who I picked to win the tournament, in the third. It looks American tennis fans can count on Blake to win at least one or two matches at the French, even if he draws a clay-courter early.

Then again, did anyone really expect Americans to go 0-9 at Roland Garros last year?

Rafael Nadal is not in Valencia this week, instead resting up before his grueling clay-court schedule begins. The Spanish faithful, however, still have no shortage of Spaniards to cheer on, as David Ferrer leads a strong armada into the clay-court season.

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal is not in Valencia this week, and that comes as no surprise considering he is about to embark on crucial stretch of point-defending that includes tournaments in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Rome, and Hamburg en route to the French Open. Not only that, but Nadal is also coming off a brutal hard-court run in which he reached the quarterfinals in Dubai, the semifinals in Indian Wells, and the final in Miami.

While Nadal’s absence—although expected—clearly depreciates the entertainment value in Valencia, the Spanish fans should actually be glad that Nadal decided to rest this week. Not only does it set Nadal up nicely for the much more important events in the coming weeks, but it also provides a great opportunity for other Spaniards to step up and win a title on their home soil.

There are plenty of Spanish contenders in Valencia to do just that. David Ferrer, who really broke out in 2007 by climbing from 14 to 5 in the ATP rankings, is the top seed this week. This year has not progressed as smoothly as last season did for Ferrer (he reached the quarterfinals in his first two events, including the Aussie Open, but has since slumped), but the baseline grinder should be able to catch fire on the red clay.

Tommy Robredo is seeded third in Valencia (second among Spaniards), but he is far from the top of the Spanish threats to win this week or contend down the road. Robredo is down to 18^th in the world and he seems poised for a continued plummet if he does not turn things around right now. His 4-6 match record in 2008 is not going to cut it, but perhaps the move to clay will help.

Fourth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, ranked just one spot below Robredo, started out the year hot with a runner-up showing in Auckland and a fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open, but his game has also tailed off recently. He’ll never be the player he was back when he won the French Open in 2003, but he can still contend to make the second week of Grand Slams (especially the French) and a strong showing in Valencia would prepare him for such a run.

Nicolas Almagro, the defending champion, is only the No. 5 seed this week—fourth among Spaniards—but his chances to take home the title are arguably second to none. While pretty much all of his compatriots prefer the red dirt to hard courts and grass, Almagro is the essence of a clay-court specialist. Take this young season for example: Almagro is just 2-4 in hard-court matches, but in three clay-court tournaments he has one quarterfinal appearance and two titles. With that in mind, it’s hard not to consider him the Valencia favorite and a serious threat to go deep at Roland Garros.

Like Ferrer, Robredo, and Ferrero, Fernando Verdasco, the No. 7 seed, is also looking to gather some much-needed momentum before the clay Masters Series events and the French Open. He has been consistently subpar this season, losing in the second round of all seven of his tournaments (he lost his first match in Miami, but had a bye in the first round). Verdasco could meet Ferrer in the Valencia quarterfinals.

Second-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina and No. 6 seed Igor Andreev of Russia will look to deprive the Spanish crowd of a hometown champion in Valencia, but with such a strong crop of Spaniards, the odds are with the trophy staying in Spain.

The bottom line is that with Nadal out of the picture, everyone in this field—not just the Spaniards—has a great opportunity to build confidence as massive amounts of rankings points loom on the horizon.