Big ATP Names Week Before French at ATP Nice, Dusseldorf

Only one week before the French Open, but some big names including Tomas Berdych, Tommy Haas, John Isner, Sam Querrey, Gael Monfils, and Lleyton Hewitt will try and get some last-minute Roland Garros preparation in this week at ATP stop in Nice, France, and the premier event in Dusseldorf, Germany.

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

Seeds: Tomas Berdych, Gilles Simon, Sam Querrey, John Isner, Andreas Seppi, Fabio Fognini, Marcel Granollers, Denis Istomin

Floaters: Paul-Henri Mathieu, (WC) Gael Monfils, (WC) Lleyton Hewitt

Notes: Seeds Querrey, Fognini with losing career records in Nice…Tough start for (7) Granollers vs. Mathieu…Hewitt hasn’t played for five weeks…Top seed Berdych on a roll after beating No. 1 Novak Djokovic last week in Rome…Pulling from the field were Brian Baker, Xavier Malisse and Benoit Paire…In last year’s final Nicolas Almagro defeated the surprise American Baker…no returning champs in this year’s field.

Power Horse Cup
Düsseldorf, Germany; Surface: clay

Seeds: Janko Tipsarevic, Tommy Haas, Juan Monaco, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Lukas Rosol, Jarkko Nieminen, Viktor Troicki, Nikolay Davydenko

Floaters: Dmitry Tursunov, Ivan Dodig

Notes: The long-running Davis Cup-style ATP World Team Cup is no more, this year replaced by a 250-level tournament at The Rochusclub in Düsseldorf…Tough starts for (8) Davydenko vs. Tursunov, and 2nd rd. (2) Haas vs. Dodig…Wildcards went to Benjamin Becker, Haas and Juan Monaco…Pulls from the event included Nicolas Almagro, Grigor Dimitrov, Florian Mayer, Philipp Petzschner and Mikhail Youzhny.