There's no rest for the weary this week as French Open champion
Rafael Nadal jets directly to London and the
Queen's Club for The Artois Championships on grass.
Nadal is the top seed, joined by fellow Top 8-ranked seeds
Andy Roddick,
Fernando Gonzalez,
Novak Djokovic,
Ivan Ljubicic,
Lleyton Hewitt,
Dmitry Tursunov and
Marat Safin.
"I couldn't wait to get to London from
Paris and it's good to come back where you have happy memories, like I do at the Artois," Roddick said. "I feel as though I'm hitting form and I'm having a blast on the grasscourts here."
Nadal will open against either his French Open victim
Juan Martin Del Potro or former Aussie Open winner
Thomas Johansson.
Other first-round match-ups of note are (16) Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco vs. Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, (11)
Jonas Bjorkman vs. blogger Justin "Time" Gimelstob, (9)
Mardy Fish vs. "Dr."
Ivo Karlovic, (12) Paul-Henri Mathieu vs. Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez.
Hewitt faces a potential third-round match-up with local boy
Tim Henman.
"Tim is a tough player on any surface, and particularly this one," Hewitt said. "It would be great to play him in the third round if it came off -- it's great practice for both of us at
Wimbledon, although it would be worthy of more than a third-round match, that's for sure."
In last year's Queen's Club final Hewitt beat
James Blake 6-4, 6-4.
