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

This one. (Sorry, I Google imagesed (yes that’s a verb) “Henin dinner” and this came up… I couldn’t help myself).

Justine has taken a wildcard into Sydney, and along with Auckland, is looking for some serious warming up to do before Melbourne. The Sydney field is totally stacked, including 9 of the top 10 (everyone but Venus) and well as the Aussie Sam “Superhero” Stosur. Might as well start getting used to the idea of Justine, she definitely wants to play, and between her and Kim being present through out the season, plan on the the ladies’ tour 2010 version to be tipped on its head compared to what you saw this year.