No Top 20 players in sight this week as the claycourt season kicks off at the Grand Prix Hassan II in
Casablanca, Morocco.
Igor Andreev is the top seed, joined by
Rainer Schuettler, Al Montanes,
Victor Hanescu,
Florent Serra,
Marc Gicquel,
Christophe Rochus, and
Arnaud Clement.
Wildcards went to Morocco's Rabie Chaki, Reda El Amrani and Mehdi Ziadi.
Many of the seeded players have it rough in Casablanca, with openers including (6) Gicquel vs.
Kristof Vliegen, (4) Hanescu vs.
Steve Darcis, (7) Rochus vs. former No. 1
Juan Carlos Ferrero, and (8) Clement vs.
Ivan Ljubicic.
Last year Frenchman
Gilles Simon captured the title as a qualifier, upending No. 5 seed
Julien Benneteau 7-5, 6-2.
