Dubai
The lucrative Dubai event attracts the best and the best are in town this year.
The draw has thrown up some mouth watering 1st rounders including Delpo vs. Dolgopolov, Youzhny vs. Gasquet, F-Lopez vs. Mahut, Baghdatis vs. Tsonga and Federer vs. Llodra. Big servers at the bottom of the draw for Federer to negotiate but he’ll have eyes on meeting the Djuggernaut in the final.
Murray and Djokovic return and would clash in the semi finals, while Del Potro get’s my dark horse pick for the title. Nice to see Benjamin ‘The Other’ Becker back from injury and playing well in Memphis last week, but he runs into Berdych 1st round, so that could give him another week off to rest up.
Let’s break it down:
Level: ATP 500
Surface: Indoor Hard
Defending Champion: Novak Djokovic
Dark Horse: Juan Del Potro
My pick: Novak Djokovic
Del Ray
Americans dominate the top half of the draw to guarantee a US player into the 2nd round.
Isner comes in as #1 seed and could meet Tomic or Tommy ‘Gun’ Haas in the quarter finals. Roddick can make amends for last week in Memphis with what looks like an easier draw and Marin Cilic returns from injury and gets tricky opener against the evergreen Finn, Nieminen.
Jurgen ‘Tuna’ Melzer had a great week in Memphis playing with a broken toe(!) and I’ll risk that against another good week here. Fun wildcards got to Haas, Jesse ‘Lefty’ Levine and Denis Kudla, who is one of the more exciting prospects on show.
Let’s break it down:
Level: ATP 250
Surface: Indoor Hard
Defending Champion: Juan Martin Del Potro
Dark Horse: Denis ‘The Menace’ Istomin
My pick: ‘Long’ John Isner
Watch: Del Ray Uncovered
Acapulco
A quality field for this 500 level clay event. Form players include Nalbandian, Monaco, Almagro, Wawrinka and of course, David ‘The Wall’ Ferrer. Is that guy ever out of form?
Gilles Simon is severely out of form however and he will want to avoid anyone Spanish or Argentine early on if he can. Fernando ‘Hot Sauce’ Verdasco looks a better doubles player these days, which was impossible to imagine 2 years ago. He desperately needs to catch fire.
Let’s break it down:
Level: ATP 500
Surface: Clay
Defending Champion: David Ferrer
Dark Horse: David ‘Nails’ Nalbandian
My pick: David Ferrer
