Around The Corner

By Mike McIntyre

Now that they've had some time to recover from a fantastic Grand Slam in Australia that saw Roger Federer confirm his dominance in the men's game, many big-name players will make their return to the court. Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko are all back in action. Here's a closer look at the three tournaments we have around the corner this week.

SAP Open - San Jose, California

Of the three tournaments this week, the SAP Open has by far the biggest drawing card on day one by showcasing an exhibition match between Fernando Verdasco and fourteen-time Grand Slam champion Pete Sampras. The 38 year old Sampras will face the 12th ranked Verdasco on Monday. Sampras has faired well in the past couple of years with exhibition matches against Roger Federer, Tommy Haas and Andre Agassi.

“When you play a current player that's a really good player like Fernando, it's not going to be easy for me,” admitted Sampras, “I kind of have to get to work here a little bit and hopefully play well. I've seen him playing quite a bit over the last few years, and he's got a big game and he's one of top players in the world. He serves well, huge forehand. It's gonna be a competitive match. That's what I'm hoping for.”

As for the actual tournament itself, look for Andy Roddick, seeded first, to have a successful event. Roddick won the event in 2004, 2005 and 2008. If his shoulder is healed up he is the clear favorite and has already won a title in 2010. Tomas Berdych is the only threat in his section of the draw, and he has dismissed the Czech player once already this year.

Defending champion Radek Stepanek opens the tournament with a tough match against Xavier Malisse, while Taylor Dent and Sam Querrey could possibly face each other in an all-American second round match to look forward to. In the bottom half of the draw veteran Tommy Haas will be someone to watch, along with Verdasco.

One interesting note from the qualifying draw in San Jose was the appearance of American Jan-Michael Gambill who received a wildcard in order to participate. You know your career is in limbo when you require a wildcard to get into the qualies. Gambill won his opening match before falling to Giovanni Lapentti in the second round. His name has surfaced very rarely the past few years on the challenger circuit and at the age of 32 and currently ranked 833rd in the world, I think it's safe to say Gambill's professional career is pretty much done.

ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament - Rotterdam, The Netherlands

With a prize-purse twice the size of the other two events this week, Rotterdam has several quality players represented in the field. The tournament is guaranteed a new champion in 2010, as Andy Murray is not present to attempt to defend his title. The hard-court event features Novak Djokovic as the number one seed and he opens against Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round.

Gael Monfils and Mikhail Youzhny (the champion in 2007) are also in the top-half of the draw and will challenge Djokovic for a spot in the finals.

In the bottom section Russian Nikolay Davydenko is seeded number two and will look to continue his early season success. After admittedly choking against Federer at the Aussie Open, Davydenko should fare better now that he's playing a smaller level tourney. In the second round he will face the winner of an intriguing opening round match between Marcos Baghdatis and James Blake - both who are unseeded. Interestingly enough, the two have never faced each other before. 

Brasil Open - Costa do Sauipe, Brazil

Brazil hosts the only clay-court tournament this week and is also without its defending champion, as Tommy Robredo has elected to play in Rotterdam instead.

Former French Open champion Juan-Carlos Ferrero is seeded first in the draw and could face-off against Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals.

Albert Montanes is seeded second while hometown favorite and a finalist here a year ago, Thomaz Bellucci is seeded third.