Update on This Week's Tournaments.

This week one of the men's tournaments is the Heineken Open in Auckland, New Zealand.  A few of the notable players playing in this tournament are Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nicolas Almagro, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Jurgen Melzer.  A few upsets happened in the early rounds.  Both Ferrer and Ferrero lost in their 2nd round matches. #4 seed  Nicolas Almagro also lost in his 2nd round matchup.  Proving to be not a good week for the Spaniards in the land of Kiwis. 

The quarterfinals have been set, so here are they are:

Tommy Robredo  vs.  John Isner

Michael Lammer  vs.  Albert Montanes

Philipp Kohlschreiber  vs.  Marc Gicquel

Jurgen Melzer  vs.  Arnaud Clement

Looking at the matchups I like Robredo, Montanes, Kolhschreiber, and Melzer to all advance.  With Robredo and Kohlschreiber meeting in the finals with an upset win for Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.

The Medibank International Sydney tournament in Sydney, Australia is an event featuring both the men and the women.  The mens field is weak after the pullout of #1 seed Gael Monfils with a shoulder strain, but where the men are lacking in star-power the women more than made up for it with a great group of players, playing in Sydney.

On the mens side the top mens players playing this week are:  Tomas Berdych, Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Querrey, Marcos Baghdatis, Mardy Fish, Richard Gasquet, Viktor Troicki, and Igor Andreev.

The mens quarterfinals look like this:

Potito Starace  vs.  Richard Gasquet

Julien Benneteau  vs.  Leonardo Mayer

Marcos Baghdatis  vs.  Lleyton Hewitt

Mardy Fish  vs.  Peter Luczak

Look for an All-French semifinal with a Gasquet and Benneteau matchup.  In the bottom half of the bracket I like Hewitt advancing to play Mardy Fish in the other semifinal, with Hewitt beating Gasquet in the final.

On the womens side of the Medibank International Sydney its stacked with great players participating this week.  Some of the big names in action are:  Serena Williams, Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Caroline Wozniacki, Elena Dementieva, Victoria Azarenka, Jelena Jankovic, Vera Zvonareva, Dominika Cibulkova, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Flavia Pennetta.

The women have reached the semifinal stage of this weeks tournament.  Here are the matchups:

Serena Williams  vs.  Arevane Rezai

Victoria Azarenka  vs.  Elena Dementieva

Serena should smash Rezai and get to the final easily.  Azarenka has been struggling to beat all her opponents so far this week, so I like Dementieva to pull out a tough 3 setter to reach the final.  In typical Williams fashion she will show up uninterested in the final and Dementieva will defend her championship.

The Moorilla Hobart International is a smaller WTA tournament taking place in Hobart, Australia.  It doesn't have the big names like in Sydney, but instead has a competitive field of players that are all ranked around the same.  The number 1 seed of this event is #27 ranked Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, while the #8 seed is #36 ranked Gisela Dulko of Argentina.  So all the seeded players are in the late 20's-early 30's ranking area making a good week of competitive tennis.  Calling a winner in this wide open tournament is tough.

Here are the quarterfinal matchups in Hobart:

Anabel Medina Garrigues  vs.  Gisela Dulko

Alona Bondarenko  vs.  Jie Zheng

Kristen Flipkens  vs.  Sara Errani

Carla Suarez Navarro  vs.  Shahar Peer

I like an upset with Dulko knocking off the top seed to reach the semifinal where she will meet Jie Zheng of China.  In the bottom half I like the Italian Sara Errani to move on and meet Shahar Peer who has been playing inspired tennis since getting "the fork" a few weeks ago.  Look for Zheng and Peer to meet in the final with Zheng edging out a tough match to win the title.....But I would not be surprised if any of these 8 ladies win this tournament.  They are all equally talented so any scenario could go down.