Notes: Clijsters (2003-02) only former champ in the field.
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.
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.
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).
so nalbandian is playing in Montpellier,France..interesting. i read somewhere that he will give asian swing a pass and concentrate on the european swing. he has a great record during this time of the year.
i guess he is going to play 3 weeks in a row because after paris it is the end of the season for those who dont play WTF.
Looking forward to see how he will perform.
Maybe gulbis will win Vienna? Hopefully he can beat a guy in his forties?
Muster was one of my favorite players in the 90s but even he knows he is way past his prime. Linemakers have Ernest Gulbis at -5000 which is a 2% ROI on your money in less than 48 hours. That's a good investment in my opinion. I don't see Muster winning a game against Gulbis.