By Mike McIntyre

Just a quick post to bring you up to speed on a few developments since the end of the Australian Open. The ATP and WTA Tours will now proceed with some smaller level tournaments on both hard and clay courts. March will showcase the two Masters Series hard-court tournaments in the United States before the official clay-court season is upon us and with it the road to the French Open in May. Until then, check back regularly for any exciting developments on the men's and women's game that you will not want to miss.

Lleyton Hewitt Injured:

Just when Lleyton Hewitt was rounding into top-twenty form, he has been hit by another injury. Hewitt had surgery on his right hip following his straight sets loss to Roger Federer in the fourth round in Melbourne. The injury was sustained during the Hopman Cup in January and is similar to the one on his left hip that kept him out of contention for much of 2008. Hewitt says he plans on coming back to the tour as quickly as he can and estimates that will be somewhere around the French Open.

For more info check out his official press conference transcript where he reported the news.

Ivan Lendl Exhibition:

Since retiring from the tour in 1994, Ivan Lendl has managed to stay away from playing any tennis exhibitions, instead choosing to focus on his golf game. That will change on April 10th as he plays former rival Mats Wilander at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The event will be called the Ceaser's Tennis Classic and will be the first in a new annual tradition. Some of the proceeds will be used to help the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education group.

Also playing during the event will be Andy Roddick against recently retired Marat Safin. That's the same  Marat Safin who said we would never see him play in such exhibition events after his professional career ended.

David Nalbandian:

Speaking of hip surgery, after being out since May 2009 with an injury to his hip, David Nalbandian is looking ready to return to the tour on clay in Buenos Aires in two weeks. Nalbandian was aiming for a return at the Australian Open, but suffered an abdominal injury while practicing. While his ranking is officially 140th in the world, Nalbandian should have a higher protected ranking when he returns from his injury.

Ranking Movements:

The most noticeable change is Novak Djokovic overtaking Rafael Nadal as the number two player in the world. Nadal has dropped to the number four position after failing to defend the ranking points he earned winning in Australia a year ago. 

Youngster Marin Cilic moves up four spots into the tenth position after his first ever Grand Slam semi-final appearance in Melbourne. 

This Week on Tour:

In Chile we have the Movistar Open on clay with Fernando Gonzalez as the number one seed and Juan Monaco as the number two. Not too many other names worth noting at this one, except perhaps Jose Acasuso who is always a threat on clay.

Zagreb, Croatia hosts a hard court tournament with Marin Cilic as the top dog. Ivo Karlovic also lurks in the top-half of the draw, while veteran Ivan Ljubicic is the number two seed.

In Johannesburg, the SA Tennis Open is underway and showcases Gael Monfils and David Ferrer as the top two players. Aside from them the draw is quite sparse, so expect the two top-twenty players to meet each other in the final.

Comments

Poor Lleyton. I wanna hear come ooooooooooooooonnnnn again!

It really is too bad Lleyton is injured again. He was starting to look like the old Hewitt and had the potential to reach the top ten again. His days of winning Slams are over, but this is still a guy who can be a threat on tour.