Woz at Brussels, Roddick in Nice; Pre-French Previews

Open de Nice Cote d’Azur
Nice, France
Surface: clay

Seeds: David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych, Nicolas Almagro, Andy Roddick, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Marcos Baghdatis, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Fabio Fognini

Floaters: “Qualifier,” Victor Hanescu, (WC) Julien Benneteau, (WC) Ernests Gulbis
ADHEREL
Notes: Why “Qualifier” and Victor Hanescu as floaters? Because one of those will likely send the struggling No. 4 seed Roddick out of the tournament in his first match; interesting opening-round match-ups include (6) Baghdatis vs. (WC) Benneteau, and (8) Fognini vs. (WC) Gulbis; Roddick is making his debut in Nice, looking for some last-minute clay preparation after going winless this dirt season, and extending his losing record to four straight matches; the Top 4 seeds in Nice this year are all making their tournament debuts; Richard Gasquet won the title last year.

Power Horse World Team Cup
Dusseldorf, Germany
Surface: clay

Teams:
USA — Mardy Fish, Sam Querrey, John Isner, James Blake
Serbia — Viktor Troicki, Janko Tipsarevic, Nenad Zimonjic, Dusan Lajovic
Germany — Florian Mayer, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Philipp Petzschner, Christopher Kas
Argentina — Juan Monaco, Juan Ignacio Chela, Maximo Gonzalez
Spain — Marcel Granollers, Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Marc Lopez
Kazakhstan — Andrey Golubev, Mikhail Kukushkin, Denis Yevseyev
Russia — Mikhail Youzhny, Igor Andreev, Dmitry Tursunov, Victor Baluda
(WC) Sweden — Robin Soderling, Christian Lindell, Robert Lindstedt, Simon Aspelin

Notes: Argentina is the defending champ; the U.S. has not won the event since 1993; the event was slated to disappear from the ATP calendar with no sponsor until Power Horse stepped in; Power Horse seems to be an energy drink made in Austria.

Brussels Ladies Open
Brussels, Belgium
Surface: clay

Seeds: Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva, Francesca Schiavone, Jelena Jankovic, Petra Kvitova, Shahar Peer, Dominika Cibulkova, Yanina Wickmayer (pre-draw)

Floaters: Draw not available as of Sunday a.m.

Notes: The inaugural Brussels Open by GDF SUEZ is held at the Royal Primrose Tennis Club.

Internationaux de Strasbourg
Strasbourg, France
Surface: clay

Seeds: Marion Bartoli, Andrea Petkovic, Ana Ivanovic, Nadia Petrova, Maria Kirilenko, Daniela Hantuchova, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Lucie Hradecka

Floaters: Kimiko Date-Krumm, Jelena Dokic, Melanie Oudin, Sania Mirza, (WC) Alize Cornet, Rebecca Marino

Notes: Starters of interest include (1) Bartoli vs. Date-Krumm, (7) Medina Garrigues vs. Oudin, Mirza vs. (WC) Cornet (winner to face (4) Petrova vs. Canadian comer Marino); Maria Sharapova won the 2010 championship.