Rafa Heads Hamburg, Isner in Atlanta; ATP/WTA Previews

BET-AT-HOME OPEN
Hamburg, Germany; Surface: red clay

Seeds: Rafael Nadal, Tommy Robredo, Roberto Bautista Agut, Andreas Seppi, Pablo Cuevas, Juan Monaco, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Fabio Fognini
ADHEREL
Floaters: Fernando “Hot Sauce” Verdasco, Borna Coric, Nicolas Almagro

Notes: Time for the tournament sponsored by an online betting site as the tour fights rampant match-fixing…Loaded dirt field…Rafa makes his first appearance since being upset at Wimbledon…Tough starts for (1) Rafa vs. Hot Sauce, and (3) Bautista Agut vs. Coric…Wildcards went to Germans Florian Mayer and Alexander Zverev, and Spaniards Jaume Munar and Nadal…Withdrawing from the event were David Ferrer and former champ Gilles Simon…Wildcards Nadal and Munar are playing doubles together…Leo Mayer upset David Ferrer in last year’s final…Former champs in the field are Fognini (2013), Monaco (2012), Nadal (2008), and Robredo (2006).

BB&T ATLANTA OPEN
Atlanta, Ga., USA; Surface: hard

Seeds: John Isner, Vasek Pospisil, Jack Sock, Adrian Mannarino, Marcos Baghdatis, Steve Johnson, Gilles Muller, Benjamin Becker

Floaters: Radek Stepanek, Mardy Fish

Notes: Tough start for (1) Isner after a bye versus the mercurial net-rushing lady-killing Radek “The Worm” Stepanek…Fish on his goodbye tour starts against last year’s finalist Dudi Sela…Wildcards went to Americans Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech, the struggling Ryan Harrison and Frances Tiafoe…The Top 4 seeds receive opening-round byes…Pulling from the tournament were Kevin Anderson, Chung Hyeon, and Janko Tipsarevic…Wimbledon juniors champ Reilly Opelka lost in the first round of qualifying…Isner beat Sela in last year’s final…Former champs in the field are Isner (2014-13) and Fish (2011-10).

SWISS OPEN GSTAAD
Gstaad, Switzerland; Surface: red clay

Seeds: David Goffin, Feliciano Lopez, Dominic Thiem, Pablo Andujar, Thomaz Bellucci, Joao Sousa, Pablo Carreno Busta, Santiago Giraldo

Floaters: none

Notes: Guess they couldn’t afford Roger, and Stan pulled from the event, so a pretty thin field with a title up for grabs…Wildcards went to Swiss Marco Chiudinelli and Henri Laaksonen, and Russian Andrey Rublev…Andujar beat Juan Monaco (who is in Hamburg this week) in last year’s final…Former champs in the field are Andujar (2014), Youzhny (2013), Bellucci (2012,’09), and Granollers (2011).

BRASIL TENNIS CUP
Florianapolis, Brazil; Surface: red clay

Seeds: Tatjana Maria, Ajla Tomljanovic, Annika Beck, Teliana Pereira, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Louisa Chirico, Laura Siegemund, Paula Kania

Floaters: none

Notes: No seeds in the Top 50! Should this be a tour-level event?…Wildcards were awarded to Brazilians Carolina Alves, Maria Fernanda Alves and Luisa Stefani…No former champs are in the field.

BAKU CUP
Baku, Azerbaijan; Surface: hard

No draw available as of Saturday

Projected Seeds: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Karin Knapp, Dominika Cibulkova, Kurumi Nara, Bojana Jovanovski, Lesia Tsurenko, Vitalia Diatchenko, Francesca Schiavone

Projected Notes: No seeds in Top 40…Highlights of the nine players pulling so far are Klara Koukalova, Monica Niculescu, Roberta Vinci and Yanina Wickmayer…In last year’s final the Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina won her second consecutive title, beating Serbian 2012 champ Bojana Jovanovski.