Oeiras, Portugal
$589,710; 250 ranking points
Clay
Draw is here
This is the kind of week where you find out who thinks they can afford to take time off, and who doesn’t. The Big 4 are obviously in the former category, but Tomas Berdych, despite all of his success, apparently is not. The world No. 6 will be the headliner and top seed in Portugal. We’ll see what kind of stripes his clothing company, H&M, comes up with for the occasion.
If this is why Berdych, who has won two of his nine career titles on clay, skipped Davis Cup this spring, he should really try to win the whole thing, right? He’ll at least want to put the memory of his last result, an early loss in Monte Carlo to Guillermo Garcia Lopez, behind him. Berdych will start against either Somdev Devvarman or Matthew Ebden.
Portugal has lured one other resident of the Top 10, Milos Raonic. This past weekend, two of his fellow Next Gen members, Grigor Dimitrov and Kei Nishikori, won titles. Raonic is currently a few places ahead of them in the rankings; will he still be at the end of the clay season? He’ll start against either Pablo Cuevas or Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
Also here: Guillermo Garcia Lopez and Pablo Carreño Busta
First-round match for the tennis-starved to watch: Albert Montanes vs. Barcelona finalist Santiago Giraldo