Wozniacki, Venus at Dubai; Tsonga Defends Marseille; Previews

Barclay Dubai Tennis Championships
Dubai, UAE
Surface: outdoor hard (Deco-Turf II)
$2,000,000

Seeds: Caroline Wozniacki, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic, Aggie Radwanska, Na Li, Sam Stosur, Flavia Pennetta, Marion Bartoli, Vera Zvonareva, Yanina Wickmayer, Francesca Schiavone, Nadia Petrova, Jie Zheng
ADHEREL
Floaters: Shahar Peer, Lucie Safarova, Sabine Lisicki, Daniela Hantuchova, Elena Vesnina, (Q) Alicia Molik, (WC) Maria Kirilenko

Notes: Top 8 seeds receive first-round byes; openers of interest include (13) Wickmayer vs. Peer, (8) Li vs. Safarova likely 2nd rd., (3) Venus vs. Lisicki likely 2nd rd., (5) Dementieva vs. Hantuchova likely 2nd rd., (12) Zvonareva vs. Vesnina in a difficult all-Russian, (16) Zheng vs. (Q) Molik; Peer was denied a spot in the draw last year by organizers who blamed the Dubai government; Serena Williams and Dinara Safina pulled from the event citing injury; last year Venus beat Serena in the semis and Virginie Razzano in the final for the title.

Open 13
Marseille, France
Surface: indoor hard (Greenset)
$512,750

Seeds: Robin Soderling, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael “Force” Monfils, Tommy Robredo, Gilles Simon, Mikhail Youzhny, Marcos Baghdatis, Julien “United Colors of” Benneteau

Floaters: none

Notes: The Top 4 seeds receive byes; not a lot of unseeded excitement; nine Frenchmen in draw not counting qualifiers; Simon playing first tourney of 2010 after injury; Andy Murray pulled from the event; Monfils 0-4 career in Marseille; returning champs in field are Tsonga (2009), Simon (2007), and Arnaud Clement (2006).