Muster Playing ATP Vienna; WTA Champs This Week: Previews

WTA Championships — Doha 2010
Doha, Qatar
Surface: hard outdoors

Players: Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva, Kim Clijsters, Samantha Stosur, Francesca Schiavone, Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva, Victoria Azarenka
ADHEREL
Injury withdrawals: Serena Williams, Venus Williams

Notes: Clijsters (2003-02) only former champ in the field.

Open Sud de France
Montpellier, France
Surface: indoor hard

Seeds: Nikolay Davydenko, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils, Ivan Ljubicic, John Isner, Albert Montanes, Richard Gasquet, David Nalbandian

Floaters: (WC) Nicolas Mahut, Gilles Simon, Taylor Dent

Notes: First-time ATP event; Ljubicic beat Michael Llodra in last year’s final when the event was held in Lyon; the Top 4 seeds receive opening byes, no real testers for seeds in first round; Isner and Nalbandian making Lyon/Montpellier debuts, Davydenko 0-1 career at the event.

Bank Austria Tennis Trophy
Vienna, Austria
Surface: indoor hard

Seeds: Jurgen Melzer, Marin Cilic, Nicolas Almagro, Marcos Baghdatis, Ernests Gulbis, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Juan Ignacio Chela

Floaters: (WC) James Blake, Xavier “X-Man” Malisse, Pablo Cuevas, (WC) Thomas Muster

Notes: Former No. 1 Tommy Muster returns at 43 years old!; interesting opening-round matches include (1) Melzer after a bye potentially facing (WC) Blake, and (5) Gulbis vs. Muster; Melzer beat Cilic in last year’s final; Muster is 1-6 on the Challenger circuit this year; Muster is a career 0-3 in finals at Vienna.

St. Petersburg Open
St. Petersburg, Russia
Surface: indoor hard

Seeds: Mikhail Youzhny, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Janko Tipsarevic, Yen-Hsun Lu, Viktor Troicki, Denis Istomin, Jeremy Chardy, Victor Hanescu

Floaters: Horacio Zeballos, (WC) Dmitry Tursunov, Rainer Schuettler, (WC) Igor Andreev, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Benjamin Becker

Notes: Openers of note include (8) Hanescu vs. Zeballos, (5) Trocki vs. Schuettler, (2) Stakhovsky vs. Becker; Lu debuts at the event, Troicki winless in two appearances in St. Pete; Stakhovsky beat Zeballos in last year’s final; Andy Murray and Marat Safin are the only two players to win back-to-back titles in St. Pete; returning champs in the field are Stakhovsky (2009) and Youzhny (2004).