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From Bob Larson Tennis, tennisnews.com:
Men's Look Forward: Queen's, Halle
It is, when you think about it, rather an interesting approach to the grass season. The ATP has, in total, four warmup events available: Queen's, Halle, Nottingham, 's-Hertogenbosch. Two of them -- Queen's and Halle -- stand fairly high on the optional events ladder. The other two are at the bottom of the scale.
At first glance, it might seem logical to schedule one big and one small event in each of the two weeks leading up to Wimbledon. But that isn't how it works. Halle and Queen's share the first week after Roland Garros, with the two small events getting the second week. That means this is the week when most of the top players turn out to get in their grass warmup, and the week's two events have to beg, cajole, and, perhaps, offer appearance fees to get as many big names as they can.
For years, the balance of power seemed to be tilting toward Halle in the contest to get the top players. It had, at the time, as many points, and more money, and it was only a 32-draw as opposed to the 56-draw at Queen's, so it wasn't as tiring.
But the decline of German tennis cost Halle a little of its prize money, and unlike Queen's, it's not a Gold event. So now the money is equal, and Queen's has more points. The balance shifted back. This year, it's close to a draw. Halle has the world's #1, but Queen's has #2. It also has the guy who was #3 going into Roland Garros. Halle had the then-#4 and #5. And so forth.
Certainly no one would call Halle weak. Roger Federer will be trying to bounce back from his ugly French Open semifinal as the #1 seed. Marat Safin will be attempting to overcome his ugly whole-year-since-Melbourne as #2. Rafael Nadal, despite his long fortnight at Roland Garros, is in the initial draw as the #3 seed, meaning that the tournament has three of the Top Five. It has a fourth Top Ten player in #4 seed Guillermo Canas. David Nalbandian's ranking just took a hit, but he gets the #5 seed even so (and, as a former Wimbledon finalist, he probably deserves it even if he doesn't "deserve" it). Big-serving Joachim Johansson, who missed Roland Garros because of an elbow problem (plus, one suspects, the fact that he had no chance on clay) will return to action as the #6 seed. Germany's current #1 player, Tommy Haas, is #7, and big-serving Feliciano Lopez, who has had his best Slam results at Wimbledon, is #8.
There is plenty of unseeded talent, too, including several guys who serve so well that they have to be considered threats on grass even if nowhere else. That includes two German wildcards, Alexander Popp and Alexander Waske. Also big in the serve department is Robin Soderling. More known for their all-around games are Mikhail Youzhny and Florian Mayer and Jiri Novak and Andrei Pavel (at least if he's over his stomach injury). Fernando Verdasco is a solid young player, though he needs to prove it away from clay. Germany has a solid veteran in Nicolas Kiefer, who won this event in 1999 and made the finals in 2002 and 2003. They also have Rainer Schuettler, though he wasn't much of a threat on grass even before his current decline. Fabrice Santoro can drive anyone crazy. Olivier Rochus has had some of his best results on grass, and he's having a pretty good year, as has brother Christophe. Jurgen Melzer has talent to burn -- at least on the days when he and it both take the court together. Michael Llodra, as befits a good doubles player, likes grass very much. And then there is Juan Carlos Ferrero, who took a wildcard here; it's ironic to see the one-time #1 trying to use grass to get back into the Top 30.
It's one of the oddities of the grass season, although everyone concedes the surface is hard to maintain, half the events have oversize fields (in all, men and women, there are eight grass events: Birmingham, Eastbourne, Halle, Newport, Nottingham, Queen's, 's-Hertogenbosch, Wimbledon. Birmingham and Queen's are 56-draws: 16 seeds, with the top eight seeds getting byes. Wimbledon is Wimbledon. 's-Hertogenbosch has normal-sized draws, but both men and women play, so it needs about as much court space as a 56-draw). That means that some of the lower seeds at Queen's are at the low end of the Top 50. But the top few are strong: Lleyton Hewitt will at last return to action as the #1 seed. Defending champion Andy Roddick is #2. Tim Henman, who has never won a grass event but who usually does well here, makes a last attempt for the #8 Wimbledon seed here; he's #3 at Queen's, and is the last of the Top Ten players. Radek Stepanek takes advantage of his recent strong results to earn the #4 spot. 2004 Wimbledon semifinalist Mario Ancic is #5. Thomas Johansson, who in his last 100% healthy year of 2001 won both Halle and Nottingham, this year plays Queen's as the #6 seed. Sebastien Grosjean, who absolutely loves grass (first title was Nottingham 2000; he made the Queen's final and the Wimbledon semifinal in both 2003 and 2004) is the #7 seed. The final bye goes to Fernando Gonzalez, seeded #8 even though he's really never done much on grass.
Taylor Dent, who like Hewitt skipped Roland Garros, returns to action as the #9 seed. Richard Gasquet, who has almost no grass history, will try to change that as the #10 seed. Paradorn Srichaphan, who won Nottingham last year, is #11. The listed #12 is Mariano Puerta, even though he's never done anything on grass and will be fresh off the Roland Garros final; he'd be seeded higher based on this week's rankings, of course. Igor Andreev is #13; Greg Rusedski, who has four career grass titles but none here, is #14; big-serving Max Mirnyi #15; and Karol Beck, who beat Henman here last year, is #16.
Notable unseeded players include last year's semifinalist Hyung-Taik Lee, 2002 Wimbledon semifinalist Xavier Malisse, once-promising Tomas Berdych, the recovering James Blake, netrushing expert Jonas Bjorkman, fastcourt-loving Arnaud Clement (who made the 's-Hertogenbosch final in 2002 and 2003) and power servers Wayne Arthurs and Mark Philippoussis -- the latter a wildcard, and iffy; he pulled out of Surbiton because his back was still not right. Plus Gael Monfils, who has finally gotten his ranking high enough that he earned direct entry.
Men's Look Forward: Queen's, Halle
It is, when you think about it, rather an interesting approach to the grass season. The ATP has, in total, four warmup events available: Queen's, Halle, Nottingham, 's-Hertogenbosch. Two of them -- Queen's and Halle -- stand fairly high on the optional events ladder. The other two are at the bottom of the scale.
At first glance, it might seem logical to schedule one big and one small event in each of the two weeks leading up to Wimbledon. But that isn't how it works. Halle and Queen's share the first week after Roland Garros, with the two small events getting the second week. That means this is the week when most of the top players turn out to get in their grass warmup, and the week's two events have to beg, cajole, and, perhaps, offer appearance fees to get as many big names as they can.
For years, the balance of power seemed to be tilting toward Halle in the contest to get the top players. It had, at the time, as many points, and more money, and it was only a 32-draw as opposed to the 56-draw at Queen's, so it wasn't as tiring.
But the decline of German tennis cost Halle a little of its prize money, and unlike Queen's, it's not a Gold event. So now the money is equal, and Queen's has more points. The balance shifted back. This year, it's close to a draw. Halle has the world's #1, but Queen's has #2. It also has the guy who was #3 going into Roland Garros. Halle had the then-#4 and #5. And so forth.
Certainly no one would call Halle weak. Roger Federer will be trying to bounce back from his ugly French Open semifinal as the #1 seed. Marat Safin will be attempting to overcome his ugly whole-year-since-Melbourne as #2. Rafael Nadal, despite his long fortnight at Roland Garros, is in the initial draw as the #3 seed, meaning that the tournament has three of the Top Five. It has a fourth Top Ten player in #4 seed Guillermo Canas. David Nalbandian's ranking just took a hit, but he gets the #5 seed even so (and, as a former Wimbledon finalist, he probably deserves it even if he doesn't "deserve" it). Big-serving Joachim Johansson, who missed Roland Garros because of an elbow problem (plus, one suspects, the fact that he had no chance on clay) will return to action as the #6 seed. Germany's current #1 player, Tommy Haas, is #7, and big-serving Feliciano Lopez, who has had his best Slam results at Wimbledon, is #8.
There is plenty of unseeded talent, too, including several guys who serve so well that they have to be considered threats on grass even if nowhere else. That includes two German wildcards, Alexander Popp and Alexander Waske. Also big in the serve department is Robin Soderling. More known for their all-around games are Mikhail Youzhny and Florian Mayer and Jiri Novak and Andrei Pavel (at least if he's over his stomach injury). Fernando Verdasco is a solid young player, though he needs to prove it away from clay. Germany has a solid veteran in Nicolas Kiefer, who won this event in 1999 and made the finals in 2002 and 2003. They also have Rainer Schuettler, though he wasn't much of a threat on grass even before his current decline. Fabrice Santoro can drive anyone crazy. Olivier Rochus has had some of his best results on grass, and he's having a pretty good year, as has brother Christophe. Jurgen Melzer has talent to burn -- at least on the days when he and it both take the court together. Michael Llodra, as befits a good doubles player, likes grass very much. And then there is Juan Carlos Ferrero, who took a wildcard here; it's ironic to see the one-time #1 trying to use grass to get back into the Top 30.
It's one of the oddities of the grass season, although everyone concedes the surface is hard to maintain, half the events have oversize fields (in all, men and women, there are eight grass events: Birmingham, Eastbourne, Halle, Newport, Nottingham, Queen's, 's-Hertogenbosch, Wimbledon. Birmingham and Queen's are 56-draws: 16 seeds, with the top eight seeds getting byes. Wimbledon is Wimbledon. 's-Hertogenbosch has normal-sized draws, but both men and women play, so it needs about as much court space as a 56-draw). That means that some of the lower seeds at Queen's are at the low end of the Top 50. But the top few are strong: Lleyton Hewitt will at last return to action as the #1 seed. Defending champion Andy Roddick is #2. Tim Henman, who has never won a grass event but who usually does well here, makes a last attempt for the #8 Wimbledon seed here; he's #3 at Queen's, and is the last of the Top Ten players. Radek Stepanek takes advantage of his recent strong results to earn the #4 spot. 2004 Wimbledon semifinalist Mario Ancic is #5. Thomas Johansson, who in his last 100% healthy year of 2001 won both Halle and Nottingham, this year plays Queen's as the #6 seed. Sebastien Grosjean, who absolutely loves grass (first title was Nottingham 2000; he made the Queen's final and the Wimbledon semifinal in both 2003 and 2004) is the #7 seed. The final bye goes to Fernando Gonzalez, seeded #8 even though he's really never done much on grass.
Taylor Dent, who like Hewitt skipped Roland Garros, returns to action as the #9 seed. Richard Gasquet, who has almost no grass history, will try to change that as the #10 seed. Paradorn Srichaphan, who won Nottingham last year, is #11. The listed #12 is Mariano Puerta, even though he's never done anything on grass and will be fresh off the Roland Garros final; he'd be seeded higher based on this week's rankings, of course. Igor Andreev is #13; Greg Rusedski, who has four career grass titles but none here, is #14; big-serving Max Mirnyi #15; and Karol Beck, who beat Henman here last year, is #16.
Notable unseeded players include last year's semifinalist Hyung-Taik Lee, 2002 Wimbledon semifinalist Xavier Malisse, once-promising Tomas Berdych, the recovering James Blake, netrushing expert Jonas Bjorkman, fastcourt-loving Arnaud Clement (who made the 's-Hertogenbosch final in 2002 and 2003) and power servers Wayne Arthurs and Mark Philippoussis -- the latter a wildcard, and iffy; he pulled out of Surbiton because his back was still not right. Plus Gael Monfils, who has finally gotten his ranking high enough that he earned direct entry.
