Johansson Headlines, Gasquet Defends at Nottingham

Swede Thomas Johansson leads a starless field as the ATP's top players play 's-Hertogenbosch, take a week of rest or collect exhibition money this week, with the remainder at the Red Letter day Open in Nottingham, England.

The ATP Nottingham stop competes with the ATP event in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, and the Boodles Challenge exhibition in Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire that features Andre Agassi among others.

Joining Johansson among the seeds at Nottingham are Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, Olivier "The Roach" Rochus, Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco, Dmitry Tursunov, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichapahn, and claycout breakout star Nicolas Almagro.

Wildcards for the event went to Brits Andy Murray, Alex Bogdanovic and Richard Bloomfield.

In last year's final No. 4-seeded Richard Gasquet defeated No. 8 Max "The Beast" Mirnyi 6-2, 6-3. Both Gasquet and The Beast are unseeded in this year's field.

Former champions in the field are Gasquet (2005), Srichaphan (2004), Jonas Bjorkman (2002,'98), and Johansson (2001).

On court Monday on the lawns are (1) T.Johansson vs. (LL) Vacek, (Q) Udomchoke vs. (7) Srichaphan, (WC) Murray/Murray vs Gimelstob/Wawrinka, Wang vs. (2) Hrbaty, (WC) Bloomfield vs. (Q) Tipsarevic, Wawrinka vs. Seppi, and (Q) Kunitsyn vs. Simon.