Combined – Sydney (Premier and 250)

Official Site: Here
Draws: Men & Women
Top Men Seeds: Delpo, Isner, Gasquet, Feli Lopez
Top Women Seeds: Woz, Kvits, Azarenka, Nails

The beginning of the year has been a strange time for the past few years. Typically Fed and Rafa peace out to Doha for the first week of the season, which seemingly takes place in an alternate universe. Djokovic doesn’t even bother. The rest of the events scrounge together what recognizable names they can find and do what they can. Then everyone comes together for the big show.

For the ladies, nearly everyone gets their cuts in somewhere, and almost everyone chooses to play Sydney. This year, nearly every top lady entered, pushing someone seemingly automatically in to a big tournament, Maria Kirilenko, into the qualifying draw (which she was eventually bounced out of).

While the men’s draw largely lacks any dark horses or big names overall, it is home to del Potro as it’s top seed. It is tough to know exactly what we’ll get from the big man this year. His return to the tour was not the Delpo we saw in 2009, and as expected. However, this may be the year that the big man gets back into his groove and there is no reason that that shouldn’t happen. Every tennis fan should scout out his form heading to Melbourne.

The ladies’ field is absolutely packed and has already featured a ton of big name matches that you would expect to see in the second week of a slam. And therein lies the rub. It may be tricky to know exactly how some of these players are feeling (I’m looking at you, Zvonareva) heading into the Melbourne. A quick loss here does not mean that they won’t find a way to work themselves into the Open and find success. Regardless, a must watch tournament with fantastic match-ups each and every day, guaranteed.

Women – Hobart (International)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: Wicky, AMG, Niculescu, Kerber

Hobart does not have a terrible draw considering Sydney is happening at the same time. Some names that could make some noise in Melbourne (Wicky, Peer, Pironkova… Cirstea…) and a pretty even draw overall. On a personal note, sometimes watching these smaller, laid back tournaments can be incredibly relaxing and can really give off the laid-back atmosphere of outer courts at other tournaments. Nerds only!

Men – Auckland (250)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: Ferrer, Almagro, Verdasco, Chela

It’s all about the Spaniards in Auckland, as tennis’ Energizer Bunny gets to work on his season. Ferrer had what he called his greatest season of his career last year as he became a mental and physical force that seemed to defy his age and time spent on court. He has to be the overwhelming favourite to take this tournament, and has to be a name to watch out for in anyone’s part of the draw in Melbourne. Special shout out to Verdasco, who looks incredibly fit and played well in the Hopman Cup. Surprise Melbourne run to come?

First off, for those in Tennis Pool, a big congrats to a great first week! For those who are doing well, awesome, for those who aren’t, you likely have a lot of players in action this week. Also, keep this in mind. Points are awarded to you as they’re awarded to players in ranking points. In other words, 250, and international and small premier events aren’t huge in comparison to slams and bigger events. You’re likely going to want to pick this week both with the tournaments in the week in mind, and with AO in mind, as you only have 12 total changes (6 each) until we get to Melbourne.  Here we go.

Joint – Sydney (Premier & 250)

Official Site: Here
Draws: Men & Women
Top Seeds: Men: Monf, Berd, Stan, Rusty Lawnmower
Women: Serena, Dina, Kuz, Caro

Holy smokes. The WTA side of things is insanely hard if you’re talking tennis pool picks, and insanely exciting when you’re considering watching. It’s Premier, but not Premier 5, so there’s only 5 rounds. That means you have a TON of high ranked players who are on course to play each other pretty damn early in the tournament. Likely, you’re going to want to pick with AO in mind, as you only have 6 changes until Melbourne. So if you’re thinking for taking a top 10 player, specifically a top 5 player for Melbourne, it might not be a bad idea to grab them now and roll the dice with them for Sydney. Otherwise, barring some big upsets, it’s unlikely lower ranked players will make it very far in this tournament. Think big.

As for the men, you’re in a bit more luck. With a lighter draw, the chances of doing better with lower ranked players is much higher. Of course Monf, Berd, and Stan are all great ideas, and did awesome last year. Dark horses Reeshman and Marcos might get you some surprise wins as well.

Women – Hobart (International)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: AMG, Shahar, K-Bond, A-Bond

The draw here is actually pretty solid. You’re not going to make as many points here as in Sydney, but you can take cheap players who will likely make it pretty far for you. Sorana and Alize are solid dark horses, and I don’t mind second seed Shahar, with her draw. Though of course, keep in mind with what you want to go for come Melbourne.

Men – Auckland (250)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: T-Rob, Ferru, JCF, Almagro

Holy Spaniards Batman. Not much to say, there’s not many people in play this week that were last week, and unless there’s people who you’re seriously thinking about taking in AO, not a whole lot here to grab. I do like Tree’s draw though, and isn’t a bad, cheap pickup.

Here’s the rankings so far for the MTR Club. If you’re still interested in getting in, just post in the comments, and I’ll invite you. 1) It’s still early! Don’t give up hope. These tournaents are worth nothing compared to slams, masters events, etc. TONS of time, and chances are people with a lot of players going last week have fewer this week 2) WTA points ARE fully updated, ATP are NOT. Once that’s fixed, I’ll update it. 3) Curtos7 actually should be winning, he has the wrong account in. Once we figure this out, I’ll update it again. 4) People with zero points aren’t taken into account. 5) You can update your team until Sunday, 4pm eastern time. 6) I’m going to update my team and post it in the comments. If you guys want to discuss it, your teams, or whatever, go nuts.

1 downtwo22 (managed by Joe) 1786
2 ally_r (managed by Alison) 1768
3 AnaTennisGirl (managed by Ana) 1757
4 MaruVR (managed by Maria) 1676
5 Yellybean (managed by jelena) 1611
6 cosmic_jive (managed by Claire) 1583
7 Becky2705 (managed by Rebecca) 1562
8 MindTheRacket (managed by Brodie) 1551
9 JustinBartha (managed by Carl) 1511
10 RagingBitch (managed by Jills) 1507
11 Oh Dina… (managed by SA) 1448
12 eastcoast (managed by Renee) 1412
13 phillies07_08 (managed by Brian) 1361
14 dollymix (managed by Nick) 1346
15 Atiras (managed by Sarah) 1338
16 van£ss (managed by vanessa) 1253
17 Dogtown (managed by Tracey) 1247
18 ihanglikeastar (managed by rishita) 1237
19 repoman13 (managed by Miguel) 1158
20 Moneyhoney87 (managed by Sabrina) 1118
21 tennisdeva (managed by Erin) 1002
22 Taffy (managed by Tiff) 1001
23 tennisetviola (managed by Emily) 1001
24 PinkPooding (managed by Vanessa) 946
25 Pink Coconut (managed by Maryam) 908
26 Parkupdates (managed by Parker) 897
27 MN Tennis (managed by mi) 871
28 Beau27 (managed by Alexandra) 862
29 rileysteam (managed by Neil)  790
30 jellybean221 (managed by Emma) 776
31 zoejrogers (managed by Zoe) 766
32 RubyTheWriter (managed by Ruby) 758
33 VikaFTW! (managed by Lily) 726
34 TennisGrrls (managed by Sheryl) 717
35 Maratsmaiden (managed by Sherri) 702
36 Masochistic Lions (managed by Mango) 635
37 Stoogle (managed by Stella) 566
38 julesdc (managed by Julie) 230