McIntyre Tennis

Rogers Cup Day One Review

 By Mike McIntyre

Day one from the Rogers Cup offered up some quality first round matches in Montreal. Some were able to meet expectations while others did not.

Falling into the category of the latter would be David Nalbandian against 16th seeded Stanislas Wawrinka. While the world's second ranked Swiss player held a solid 5-3 record against Nalbandian heading into the match, the Argentine won their last encounter with ease a year ago by a score of 6-1, 6-3.

Nalbandian has had a tough year, one that once again has been negatively impacted by health issues. Requiring not one, but two separate surgeries to his left leg/groin areas, Nalbandian missed three months on the tour and returned just in time for the brief grass-court season. He lost in the third round of both Queen's (Verdasco) and Wimbledon (Federer) before falling to James Blake in the first round of Washington where he was the defending champion. His inability to defend those ranking points sent him plummeting 24 spots in the ranking to his current spot of 51st in the world.

Nalbandian looked ordinary on Center Court against Wawrinka today and could not make a dent in his game. He looked somewhat lethargic and allowed Wawrinka to win easily 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the second round where he will now face the winner of the Michael Russell vs. Albert Montanes match scheduled for tomorrow.

Wawrinka was moving well on the court today and never seemed bothered by Nalbandian's game. His assessment of his opponent was pretty much to the point as he said that, "With him, you never know.  Today he was not playing really good. I think he's not really ready." He pointed out that perhaps at Nalbandian's age he is not quite as fit as he needs to be. "But maybe with the year (age), he's 29 now, maybe it's not easy for him to play many matches at the top level."

Nalbandian was practicing on the weekend with big-serving Ivo Karlovic - perhaps not the best player to prepare for a groundstroke battle with an all-round player like Wawrinka.

In the second match of the day on the main stage, the ever-present Juan Carlos Ferrero took on enigmatic Ernests Gulbis. JCF held a 1-0 head-to-head advantage coming into the match and had looked strong lately on clay in winning his sixteenth career title in Stuttgart. Ferrero's season has been a trying one however as he did not play his first tournament until April due to wrist and knee injuries. He was then out between May and July when those same ailments began acting up once again. Today was his first hard-court action of the year and he got off to a good start by taking the opening set 6-3.

Gulbis has been playing some of the best tennis of his career as of late as the 22 year old won his first title of the year and second of his career in Los Angeles against Mardy Fish. Could it be that Gulbis is finally going to deliver on his enormous potential? He dug deep today against Ferrero to comeback and win 3-6, 6-1, 7-5. Next on the horizon will be a match against the winner of tomorrow's match between Mikhail Youzhny and Michael Llodra.

Other matches of note on the outside courts included the talented Alexandr Dolgopolov, who survived a scare from Erik Chvojka of Canada who is ranked 290th in the world and was entered in the draw thanks to a wildcard from Tennis Canada. Dolgopolov had to battle to win 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

Big serving Ivo Karlovic snapped out of a funk that has seen him lose seven of his last eight matches on the tour. He prevailed today against Juan Monaco 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-6(5) for only his second win since May. Speaking with him afterwards, Karlovic recalled that when he turned thirty it was, "the most depressing day of my life, so I know how Roger must feel now."

American Alex Bogomolov Jr. continued his surprising play of late by dispatching Adrian Mannarino in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6(4).

Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil knocked-off Andrey Golubev 7-5, 7-6(6). Golubev has now lost eighteen straight matches. He is quickly approaching the all-time losing record of Vince Spadea who at one point in his career lost twenty-one consecutive matches. Talk about having your resolve to keep playing thoroughly tested.

Marin Cilic, who it seems to me is due for some sort of breakthrough this year, was able to dispatch of Andreas Seppi 7-5, 6-4.

Nikolay Davydenko defeated Flavio Cipolla 6-3, 6-3 to advance to an interesting second round encounter. Davydenko will now face world number one Novak Djokovic in the second night match on Tuesday in Montreal. While a shell of his former self, Davydenko will be a tricky opening opponent for Djokovic. The Serb has not played yet due to a first round bye.

At night, Juan Martin Del Potro easily handled Jarkko Nieminen by a margin of 6-4, 6-0. I've personally stopped feeling any sympathy for Nieminen ever since he trounced Andre Agassi in the last two sets of the American's last appearance at the French Open. In that match in 2005, Agassi was up two sets to one until his back acted up and he was beaten 7-5, 4-6, 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-0.

The 19th ranked Del Potro is on a collision course to face Djokovic in the third round in what would be a marquee match-up that early in the event. The 2009 U.S. Open winner has been making some solid progress since missing most of the 2010 season due to injury and is certainly going to be back in the top ten, perhaps even top five if he continues at this rate.

Del Potro refused to speculate on facing Djokovic and gave the classic "one match at a time" answer when pressed.

"Yeah, I know that. But first I will have to play against Cilic. Will be very difficult match for both.  We know each other since juniors. We play many, many times. It's really difficult match for me because he knows everything about my game, and I know many things about his game, too. But first I have to beat him and then I will thinking if I have another match. Before (Djokovic), Cilic in the next round."

The final match of the night was between fan-favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Fabio Fognini. The Frenchman advanced with some second set difficulty but was able to make Fognini the third in a trifecta of Italians to be bounced from the tournament. The final score was 6-4, 7-6(0). Tsonga was visited by the trainer in the second set when down a break and appeared to have - no joke - his head checked. Tsonga stuck around after the match to hit a few balls with a local wheelchair tennis player in a nice moment to end the evening.

One noticeable no-show today was birthday boy Roger Federer. With a bye in the first round he is not scheduled to play until Wedneday so we will have to wait until then to discuss how he feels about turning the big 3-0.

 

 

Around The Corner: Marseille, Memphis and Buenos Aires

By Mike McIntyre

Open 13 - Marseille, France

Fresh off his win in Rotterdam, Sweden's Robin Soderling looks to continue his impressive form this week in Marseille as the number one seed. This guy has certainly proved he belongs in the top five and the only thing really left for him to achieve at this stage in his career is to win a Slam at some point. With Roger approaching thirty and Nadal's healthy always a question, there is no reason why Soderling cannot accomplish this at some point in 2011.

Soderling gets a first round bye and will face either Frenchman Nicolas Mahut or a qualifier in the second round. He will have the likes of Jurgen Melzer or Ivan Ljubicic to contend with in the top-half of the draw.

Tomas Berdych is the second seed and still seems to be struggling with his game. Despite making the semifinals of Wimbledon last year, Berdych has not managed to be as consistent week in and week out like Soderling is. The Czech will face either veteran Arnaud Clement or a qualifier in the second round.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is a more likely name to emerge from the bottom-half of the draw and lookout for Nikolay Davydenko or Gilles Simon - both unseeded - to also make a run in Marseille. The two former top-ten players face each other in the opening round and then have the "good" fortune of facing seventh seeded Mikhail Youzhny in round two. Getting through that kind of tough start could give them the momentum to go deep in the draw.

A Frenchman has won this event in four of the last five years. In 2010 it was Michael Llodra, who opens this time against Julien Benneteau. With all the big names entered in the draw I think it is a huge long-shot for Llodra to expect similar results this time around.

Regions Morgan Keegan Championships - Memphis, Tennessee

Andy Roddick makes his return to the ATP World Tour for the first time since the Australian Open where he surprisingly lost in the fourth round. He opens against Richard Berankis in a relatively easy opening match and then could face Janko Tipsarevic in round two. Tipsarevic has given him trouble in their past two meetings so this will be no easy draw for America's top player. Roddick could really use a tournament victory to show others he is still one of the top contenders on the circuit. It wouldn't hurt to prove that to himself either as he has not won a title since March of last year. Roddick has a lot of ranking points to defend next month and could see himself drop out of the top-ten if he doesn't bring his best game to the court.

Veteran Lleyton Hewitt is also in Roddick's quarter and the pair could meet up in the third round. Hewitt, even more-so than Roddick, needs to show he still has some fight left in him. Turning thirty in just over a week, the Australian is ranked 70th in the world and is looking for his first ATP level win of the season. 

The first-round match to watch here in Memphis will undoubtedly be that between wild-card Juan Martin Del Potro and sixth seeded John Isner. Standing at 6'6'' and 6'9'' respectively, these two players will be bringing some serious firepower to the court. Del Potro leads the head-to-head 2-0 but is still not back at 100%. He did take a giant leap forward in his comeback from wrist surgery when he made the semi-finals in San Jose this past week before losing to Fernando Verdasco.

Verdasco leads the bottom-half of the draw as the second seed and will face Canadian Milos Raonic in the first round. The interesting thing about this match-up is that the two have just played each other in the finals in San Jose. It is not often that you see two players meeting in the final of one event only to then meet in the first round of the next one.

Defending champion Sam Querrey is also in the bottom-half of the draw, but much like with Llodra in Marseille, I feel he will be hard-pressed to repeat as champion due to the tough competition. Ranked 17th in the world, Querrey has struggled mightily at the start of the season by losing both of his first round matches in Australia last month. We'll see if he can get back on track while playing in a spot like Memphis where he has so many positive memories from 2010.

Copa Claro - Buenos Aires, Argentina

The seemingly mandatory clay court event on the tour this week takes place in Buenos Aires where forgotten veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero is the defending champion. Unfortunately Ferrero has not been able to play yet this season as he recovers from wrist and knee surgery and will miss the event this year.

That being said there are several worthy successors to walk away with the title. Top seed Nicolas Almagro loves playing on red clay and just won the Brasil Open against Alexandr Dolgopolov. Almagro has always had trouble putting together back-to-back titles though, so don't expect another deep run this week. He often follows up a win with a second round loss for some reason. Should he get to round three in Buenos Aires, he will likely get a rematch with Dolgopolov.

David Nalbandian and Tommy Robredo represent the veteran presence in the top-half of the draw and while I would count on Nalbandian to emerge from this section, you can never really count out Mr. Robredo. This guy always seems to have a strong performance just when you think he's on the verge of disappearing from the radar.

The bottom half of the draw is led by second seeded Stan Wawrinka. While Stan has had a great season thus far, on clay I'd take guys like Juan Monaco and Alberta Montanes as more likely picks in this section of the tourney.

All in all this week has some great matches despite the lack of Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray. Most of the other top players are in action and we also have some great new faces like Dolgopolov and Raonic to continue to keep an eye on. Enjoy the tennis everyone!

 

 

 

Around The Corner: Hamburg and Atlanta

By Mike McIntyre

The International German Open - Hamburg, Germany

The German Open offers European clay-court specialists another opportunity to pad their ranking point totals for the year.

Russian Nikolay Davydenko is seeded first but given his play as of late I wouldn't expect much in terms of results here. Struggling to find his game after returning from injury, Davydenko was bounced in the first round in Stuttgart last week and is 3-4 since returning from a three month layoff. While Davydenko is the returning champion, he will have considerable difficulty in defending this time around.

Nicolas Almagro is seeded fifth and is always dangerous on red clay. The Spaniard just captured the title in Bastad, his first of 2010, and has a favorable draw here in Hamburg. One knock against Almagro however is that he usually disappoints after a big result. Consistency is lacking and it will be a challenge for him to put together back-to-back titles.

Veterans Juan Carlos Ferrero and Tommy Robredo are both in the draw and have the ability to raise the trophy as does Albert Montanes who won in Stuttgart last week.

Third seeded Jurgen Melzer has performed well at the last two Grand Slams, where he made the semis at Roland Garros and the fourth round at Wimbledon, but then bowed-out 4-6, 1-6 to Montanes a week ago on clay.

Second seeded David Ferrer is my favorite here and performed well in Bastad where he lost just a few days ago in the semi-finals to Robin Soderling in three sets.

The Atlanta Tennis Championships - Atlanta, Georgia

The city of Atlanta gets to host an ATP event for the first time since 2001 when Andy Roddick won his first ATP tournament. Previously this tournament was held on green clay, but returns as a hard-court event leading up to the U.S. Open. The city is no stranger to big tennis events as it hosted the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Roddick gets a first-round bye and could face Xavier Malisse in the third round. Roddick holds an 8-0 career advantage against the 58th ranked Belgian, who is climbing his way back up the rankings as of late.

If you're a fan of American tennis you'll want to keep a close eye on the second quarter of the draw. There you'll find a quartet of aging American players who will fight for the chance of facing Roddick in the semi-finals.

Twenty-nine year old Taylor Dent gets an opening round match against thirty year old James Blake that should be a crowd pleaser. Blake has dropped out of the top-hundred while Dent is working on moving back towards the top-fifty. Blake is taking his departure from the upper-echelon of the game with much difficulty and has talked recently about how this could be his last year on tour if things do not improve. 

Also lurking in this section are twenty-seven year old Robby Ginepri and twenty-eight year old Mardy Fish. I would look to Fish to have the best chance of breaking out of this section of the draw as he won the title in Newport, Rhode Island just over a week ago.

Third seeded Lleyton Hewitt should be able to have a solid run in Atlanta and his presence here indicates to me that he is serious about taking a good run in Flushing Meadows. The veteran from Australia can still hit a good ball and is always a threat when healthy.

In the bottom quarter look for second seeded John Isner to advance quite deep in the draw. I'd imagine that Isner has more than recovered from his epic first-round victory at Wimbledon over Nicolas Mahut. Let's hope that Isner has found some time to practice around his recent media blitz that included reading the top-ten list on Late Night with David Letterman and winning an ESPY award for greatest record-breaking performance.

Around the Corner: Clay Court Tennis in Stuttgart and Bastad

By Mike McIntyre

With the short grass court season already over, the ATP Tour turns to a couple of clay court tournaments in Europe this week.

Stuttgart:

The chance at redemption to a multitude of players who have missed significant portions of the tennis season due to injury is offered at Stuttgart this year.

Russian Nikolay Davydenko is the top seed in Stuttgart and will try to improve on his semi-final appearances here in 2004 and 2005. Ranked sixth in the world, Davydenko is still struggling with his game since returning from a wrist injury in June. After missing three months he returned in time for Halle and Wimbledon and lost both times in the second round on his least favorite surface of grass. Davydenko gets a first round bye and will then play the winner of the Daniel Gimeno-Traver and Jeremy Chardy match. Chardy won his first career title here a year ago but will be hard-pressed to repeat.

Frenchman Gael Monfils is seeded third and has a fairly easy looking quarter of the draw that is littered with qualifiers. Monfils also missed some time earlier in the year with injury issues and has yet to post any significant results in 2010. This tournament offers the perfect opportunity for Monfils to reach his first final of the season.

Fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon could meet up with veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third quarter-final. Simon will be have trouble living up to this seventh-seed status as he too was out of action for three months between March and June with injuries and is not yet where his game is capable of being.

In the final quarter, clay-court specialist Albert Montanes the fifth seed will likely meet up with second seeded Jurgen Melzer if they can get through the opening two rounds. Melzer is experiencing the season of his career thus far at the age of 29 by making it to the semi-finals at the French Open and the fourth round at Wimbledon. The Austrian had never before advanced past the third round of a Grand Slam.

Bastad:

In Bastad, Sweden, local hope Robin Soderling will look to defend his title from a year ago. Soderling was the first Swede to win the singles title in Bastad since his current coach, Magnus Norman, did it in 2000. 

Third seeded David Ferrer won the title in 2007 and is still capable of strong results on clay. This year he has won the title in Acapulco, made the finals of Buenos Aires and the Masters-Series tournament in Rome as well as the semi-finals of four other tournaments.

Nicolas Almagro is seeded fourth and is an able clay-court player. His section seems quite routine and he should be able to find his way deep into the draw.

The bottom quarter features two tough players from Spain in veteran Tommy Robredo, who has won the Bastad title twice before (2006, 2008), and second seeded Fernando Verdasco. Robredo holds a 23-7 career record at this tournament and has a 4-4 head-to-head against Verdasco.

One interesting note when looking at the list of former doubles champions is that Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman won here on seven separate occasions and with six different partners.

Around the Corner: Indian Wells

By Mike McIntyre

Alright everybody it's time again for some tennis that really matters at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Both the ATP and WTA Tour's are in the house and that should make for a great week of coverage for our sport. This has always been a terrific event and it set the record for attendance outside of a Grand Slam event in 2008 with over 300,000 spectators during a twelve day period.

Let's have a look at the men's draw and see how things shape up.

Roger Federer is back on the scene for the first time since his Australian Open title at the end of January. The world number one has just overcome an apparent lung infection and coupled with his recent inactivity I don't think we should expect all that much from him. Yes, he will likely make it deep into the draw, but I would be surprised if Roger made it past the semi-finals here this year. Roger gets a first round bye as do all thirty-two seeded players in the tournament. His first capable opponent could be Marcos Baghdatis in the third round.

Also in the top-half of the draw are the two Andy's - 4th seeded Murray and 7th seeded Roddick. Murray tanked in Dubai in his only appearance since losing in the finals of the Aussie Open to Federer, while Roddick has played a fairly heavy schedule on the hard-courts of North America.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also lurks in the top-half while David Nalbandian seems ready to return to tournament play. Coming back in February after nine months away from the game due to hip surgery, Nalbandian withdrew before his third round match in Buenos Aires with a leg injury. The talented Nalbandian played the role of hero this past week in Davis Cup play as he closed out a victory over Sweden with a four set win over Andreas Vinciguerra. If he can stay healthy for an extended period, look for Nalbandian to quickly return to his typical top-twenty form.

The bottom-half of the draw contains 2nd seeded Novak Djokovic who recently defended his title in Dubai and seems poised for a bigger result here on the Masters Series stage. Right behind him is 3rd seed, Rafael Nadal, who returns to the tour after a recurring knee injury forced him to withdraw in Australia where he trailed Andy Murray in the quarter-finals. Expectations are low for Nadal as he has been away from the game for over a month and let's just hope he can finish the tournament on his own terms. Defending his title in India Wells from 2009 is simply not going to happen.

Playing on fire so far this year and also in the bottom section is hard-serving John Isner of the United States and veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain. Isner won his first career title in Auckland in January and then was a finalist in Memphis, while Ferrero won back-to-back clay events in Costa Do Sauipe and Buenos Aires.

Also worth watching is Nikolay Davydenko who is likely still kicking himself for self-destructing against Federer in Melbourne and youngster Marin Cilic who made the semi-finals down-under and is ready to assert himself as a top-level threat in every event he enters.

I feel that with players like Federer, Nadal and Davydenko dealing with recent injuries or illnesses we are in for a Djokovic/Roddick final in Indian Wells. Those are my picks in the ATP World Tour Fantasy Challenge that begins Thursday at 2pm ET. Who will you choose?

Around the Corner: Davis Cup and the Monterrey Open

By Mike McIntyre

A mixed bag of events are around the corner this week. To kick off the month of March, the men are involved in the first round of Davis Cup competition. The women meanwhile are in Mexico for the Monterrey Open. Both tour's are inching closer to the combined event in Indian Wells that begins in two weeks.

Davis Cup:

Here are the match-ups for the first round of the World Group starting March 5th.

Spain vs. Switzerland - Logrono, Spain;

No Nadal or Federer in this match-up unfortunately. Spain is the huge favorite as this will be played on clay and can rely on David Ferrer, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Tommy Robredo.

France vs. Germany - Toulon, France;

Without veterans Tommy Haas and Nicolas Kiefer, Germany will be in tough on hard courts against a French team that includes Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils.

Russia vs. India - Moscow, Russia;

Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny should own India in singles competition, but look for the Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati to win the doubles match.

Sweden vs. Argentina - Stockholm, Sweden;

The indoor hard-court conditions should be ideal for Sweden's Robin Soderling who should win both of his singles matches. This will be a tough match-up for Argentina as David Nalbandian is once again on the injury list.

Croatia vs. Ecuador - Varazdin, Croatia;

Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic are going to make life very difficult for the Lapentti brothers on the hardcourts in Varazdin.

Serbia vs. United States - Belgrade, Serbia;

This should be a very interesting match-up, with Novak Djokovic leading the way for Serbia and the Bryan brothers countering for the United States. In the end it will come down to how Sam Querrey and John Isner can respond as the lead singles players for the U.S. on the red clay in Belgrade. Serbia has the definite edge considering the chosen surface.

Chile vs. Israel - Coquimbo, Chile;

On paper, the Chilean squad led by Fernando Gonzalez should be favored on clay against Israel, but in 2009 the Israeli's put on quite a show in Davis Cup play and made it all the way to the semi-finals. They cannot be counted out in this tie in Coquimbo. The doubles duo of Andy Ram and Jonathan Elrich are quite the force.

Belgium vs. Czech Republic - Bree, Belgium

Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek lead the way for the Czechs against veterans Olivier Rochus and Xavier Malisse. The Belgians will really have to rely on using the energy from the home-court advantage to have a hope against the higher-ranked Czech's.

Monterrey Open:

A year ago, Marion Bartoli won the innaugaural Monterrey Open against Li Na 6-4, 6-3.

This year, Jelena Jankovic leads the tournament as the top seed and perhaps this event offers her the opportunity to get her game back on track. Struggling mightily for the past year, the Serbian has great talent but a mental game that is as fragile as they come.

Other names to keep an eye on in Monterrey include Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, Aleks Wozniak from Canada and Melanie Oudin of the United States. All of these players could benefit from a strong run and without many of the tour's top players in attendance should be able to get some momentum ahead of Indian Wells.

Jelena Dokic leads the qualifying tournament as the top seed and will be looking to post her first substantial result of 2010. While Dokic had a fantastic start to 2009 by making the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, she has failed to repeat that success this year and is 1-3 in tournament play.

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.

Around the Corner - Aussie Open Tune-ups Continue

By Mike McIntyre

With the Australian Open just a week away, many players are using this time to rest from tournament play and work on their game in practice only. You won't find Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray or Andy Roddick playing any real matches this week. All of those top-dogs have already notched several wins under their belts and are feeling confident heading towards the first Slam of the year.

For some players though, they have yet to gain enough time on the court and are looking to take advantage of some precious ranking points and prize money while the big guns rest up. This week there are two ATP tournaments and one exhibition tourney set to begin.

Heineken Open - Auckland, New Zealand:

Tommy Robredo is the number one seed in Auckland this year and is coming in with a big win off Andy Murray at the Hopman Cup last week. The Spaniard defeated Murray 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 to help lead Spain to victory. He has a first-round bye and may face big-serving John Isner in the quarter-finals.

The only other big name in the top half of the draw is veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero who will likely face a qualifier or two on his way to the later rounds. Ferrero is still kicking his tires on tour, but expectations are low even in a tournament of this scale.

In the bottom half Philipp Kohlschreiber has the not-so-enviable task of facing David Nalbandian in his return to tour action. Nalbandian has not played since May of 2009 due to injury but started his season a year ago with a victory in his first tournament of the year. It will be interesting to see what kind of shape Nalbandian is in and whether or not he can be considered a threat at the Aussie Open.

David Ferrer is the second seed in Auckland and has a fairly open section of the draw which should enable him to reach the semi-finals. The bottom half also welcomes Sebastien Grosjean back to the tour. The Frenchman had a record of 2-6 in 2009 as he too was plagued with injury problems.

Medibank International - Sydney, Australia

There will be a new champion in Sydney this year, as defending champion David Nalbandian is in Auckland instead. It's hard to figure out why the Argentine would make such a move, but he never really has been an easy one to figure out.

Gael Monfils is seeded number one and should advance to face Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals. It is surprising that Wawrinka is choosing to play in Sydney, since he already reached the finals in Chennai where he lost to Marin Cilic last week. I would not be surprised if Wawrinka drops out at the last minute to rest up for the Open.

Igor Andreev and Richard Gasquet are also in the top half of the draw and are capable of causing some damage. We're still waiting on Gasquet to deliver some results since returning from his shortened drug-related suspension from last season. 

Lleyton Hewitt, who has won here four times before, will represent the local hopes. Hewitt is eager to return to the top ten this year and with a higher ranking he should be seeded at most tournaments he enters in 2010.

Sam Querrey and Tomas Berdych are also in this section of the draw. Querrey lost in the first round last week in Brisbane, while Berdych made it to the semi-finals before falling to eventual champion Andy Roddick. 

Kooyong Classic - Melbourne, Australia

The annual Kooyong Classic exhibition normally attracts some big-name players and this year is no exception. Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro will both be in attendance, as will Fernando Gonzalez, Tommy Haas, Fernando Verdasco, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Robin Soderling.

While there will be no ranking points awarded here, the prize money must certainly be enticing and the players have the luxury of putting as much or as little effort as they see fit in the week before the Open. The draw will not be out until January 12th.

While players are eager for some more match play before the Aussie Open, it may be more of a burden for those who advance deep into the draws. Best-of-five-set matches are just around the corner and having some gas left in the tank is going to be a necessity for most.

Is it 2003?

Juan Carlos Ferrero v. Andy Roddick in the final of a tournament? Talk about flashback. I'm rooting for Ferrero, but I think Andy's got this one.

Read 'Resurgent Roddick and Ferrero set up final showdown'

Juanqui KOs Rafa 7-6 7-6

Well, yet another shocker. After 4 straight losses to Rafael Nadal, who thought Juan Carlos Ferrero had it in him? VAMOS, Juanqui. Nadal was making an uncharacteristic amount of errors--looked liked his timing was off; and Juanqui was just solid as a rock in the tiebreaks. ETA: Here are post match interview audio clips and a match review.

Crazy amount of Spaniards in the quarters. Let's see if Tommy Robredo and/or David Ferrer can join Juanqui in the semis. ETA: Robredo's through. Vamos Espagna!

This has got to be the most WTF week of tennis.

ps. Ana Ivanovic v. Dinara Safina tomorrow!

*Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images