Preview of This Weeks Tournaments (April 5-11)

Few days late, and most of these tournaments are getting to the quarterfinal stages.  Here we go anyways with the clay court season beginning this week.

Lets start with the ladies:

The Andalucia Tennis Experience is a clay court tournament taking place in Marbella, Spain.  Last years winner Jelena Jankovic will not be back to defend her title.  The winner of this event will take a check home worth $37,000 American dollars.

Top 4 Seeds:

1. Victoria Azarenka (#7 world ranking)

2. Flavia Pennetta (#13)

3. Kim Clijsters (#16)

4. Aravane Rezai (#21)

Other notables in the field:  Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Maria Kirilenko, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Carla Suarez Navarro, Polona "Boss" Hercog, Sara Errani, and Simona Halep who is most famous for having huge boobs and then getting a breast reduction.

Midland Jobber in the field:  Arantxa Rus

The MPS Group Championships is the other WTA Tournament this week.  It takes place on the clay courts of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, USA.  Caroline Wozniacki is back to defend the title she won last year.  The winner also walks away with $37,000

Top 4 Seeds:

1. Caroline Wozniacki (#2 world ranking)

2. Alona Bondarenko (#24)

3. Dominika Cibulkova (#28)

4. Elena Vesnina (#34)

Other notables in the field:  Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Aleksandra Wozniak, Melanie Oudin, and Bethany Mattek-Sands.

"Midland jobbers" in the field:  Sofia Arvidsson, and Vania King.

Now the men...

The Grand Prix Hassan II is a ATP clay court tournament in Casablanca, Morrocco.  Juan Carlos Ferrero won this event last year, but has decided to not return and defend his title.  Winner of this event receives a payment of  72, 150 euros.

Top 4 Seeds:

1. Stanislas Wawrinka (#23 world ranked)

2. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (#41)

3. Victor Hanescu (#42)

4. Lukasz Kubot (#43)

Other notables in the field:  Paul Henri-Mathieu, Simon Greul, Olivier Rochus, Florent Serra, Richard Gasquet, and Jarkko Nieminen.

The U.S. Mens Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas, USA has the stronger field of the two ATP tournaments this week.  Last years winner Lleyton Hewitt returns this week from injury to defend his title, in hopes of going home with the check of $79,900 once again.

Top 4 Seeds:

1. Fernando Gonzalez (#11 world ranking)

2. John Isner (#21)

3. Sam Querrey (#25)

4. Lleyton Hewitt (#27)

Other notables in the field:  Taylor Dent, Dudi Sela, Horacio Zeballos, Rajeev Ram, Juan Ignacio "cha cha" Chela, Eduardo Schwank, Evgeny Korolev, Michael Russell, "Mr. HGH" Wayne Odesnik, and fellow doper Xavier Malisse.

Look for the Quarterfinals blog tomorrow.