Week in Preview: Dimitrov, Sock in action as tours continue transition

It’s still transition time on tour. Step by step, slide by slide, the players are making their way from hard courts to clay, and from the U.S. to Europe. But we’re not all the way there yet. This week the men play on red dirt in Houston and Marrakech, Morocco, while the women are in Bogota, Colombia and Biel, Switzerland.

*Houston, Texas

$600,345; 250 ranking points

Red clay

Draw is here*

Were tournament officials in Houston exceptionally lucky, or unlucky, that Jack Sock, John Isner, Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson were their top four seeds?

On the one hand, all of them will be coming off a 20-plus-hour flight from Brisbane, Australia, where they were beaten by the Aussie Davis Cup team this weekend. On the other hand, as the top four seeds, each of them will get a first-round bye in Houston.

Will that be enough for them to be ready to make the transition from a hard court Down Under to red clay in the States? It’s not going to be easy, but the top-seeded Sock won this tournament in 2015 and reached the final last year.

First-round matches to watch:

Reilly Opelka vs. Tommy Haas

Thomaz Bellucci vs. Frances Tiafoe

Ernesto Escobedo vs. Tennys Sandgren. The 25-year-old Sandgren qualified for his first ATP-level event.

*Marrakech, Morocco

$600,000; 250 ranking points

Red clay

Draw is here*

You remember Grigor Dimitrov, right? The guy who was flying up the rankings, and into the late rounds at majors, at the start of the year? By the end of March, his surge had slowed. He appeared, after winning a lot of matches over a three-month period, to have run out of gas.

Rather than take a break, though, Dimitrov is getting right back on the court at this red-clay 250 in Morocco. The question for the top seed is whether he needs the wins or the rest more. There’s a lot of dirtball ahead.

Also here: Albert Ramos-Viñolas, Mischa Zverev, Philipp Kohlschreiber

*Bogota, Colombia

$250,000; WTA International

Red clay

Draw is here*

For the top women, it’s either a travel week, a break week or a practice week—or some combination of the three. None of the Top 10 are in action. That leaves Kiki Bertens and Katerina Siniakova as the No. 1 and 2 seeds in Bogota.

Wild card (forever): Francesca Schiavone

*Biel, Switzerland

$250,000; WTA International

Hard court

Draw is here*

Of the two women’s events this week, the hard-court tournament in Biel is the stronger. Eighteenth-ranked Barbora Strycova is the No. 1 seed, and former Top Tenner Carla Suarez Navarro is No. 2.

Wild card: Belinda Bencic. After breaking into the Top 10 a little more than a year ago, this oft-injured home-country favorite is ranked No. 130 now.