I’m guessing I’ve used this metaphor before—after 1,159 posts, it’s hard to remember for sure—but we’ve reached another post-crescendo point in the tennis season. The noisy summit of Flushing Meadows was followed by a moment of tour silence for Davis Cup. Now the first few scattered notes of the next movement are tentatively being played, as small tournaments in Korea and China, Metz and Bucharest get underway. Maybe it’s just me, but it reminds me of the moment after the final double-guitar build-up in Television’s “Marquee Moon,” when the notes float in the ether for a few seconds, before the beat begins all over again. (Actually, I’m sure it’s just me.)
The tour beat hasn’t begun in earnest again; that will happen when the women get to the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo next week, and the men begin their own Asian swing. Until then, there are four 32-draw, warm-up to the warm-up events, two on the men’s side, two on the women’s. The men are in Bucharest and Metz, France; the women in Seoul and Guangzhou. I’ll cover one on each side. If nothing significant comes from them, at least hardcore tennis junkies will still have scores, floating in the ether, to stare at and mull over.
Moselle Open
Metz, France
Hard courts; $616,255; 250 points
Draw here
You can find the Bucharest draw here. The tourmanent's name—the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy—calls up memories of bad boy entertainment, but there’s no one quite as memorable in the tournament itself.
Metz, on the other hand, is well stocked for a 250; I guess it helps to be in France, if you’re looking for style points. Tsonga is the top seed and Gasquet No. 2. In between them are experts' favorites like Llodra, Dolgopolov, Baghdatis, Malisse, Kohlschreiber, and Rochus. Compare to that the mostly American draws from the early part of the summer—in Atlanta and L.A.—and Metz more than holds its own.
Tsonga is coming off dual beatdowns by Federer and Nadal, but overall he’s played some of his best tennis in the period since Queens in June. Dolgopolov also appeared to be ready to surge again at the U.S. Open. Unfortunately, he plays Baghdatis in the second round. If you’re a tournament director, that’s probably a little too high in quality for so early in the week; one of your bigger names will be out by Wednesday.
Two players to watch:
Gasquet: Can he bounce back from a disappointing loss to Karlovic at the Open and a shellacking by Nadal in Davis Cup? His season has been a promising one otherwise.
Dimitrov: OK, he’s spent 2011 doing what he needed to do, leaving the Challengers behind and making himself a fixture in main ATP draws. Now comes the next step—beating seeded players. (Update: That will have to wait another week (or two or three or four), as Dimitrov was bounced 2 and 2 by a qualifier in the opening round).
Name to try to pronounce, or just spell correctly, before he’s out of the tournament: Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy of France. He plays Kohlschreiber in the first round.
Hansol Korea Open
Seoul, Korea
Hard courts (Deco Turf); $220,000
Draw here
We’ve been missing Serena Williams for most of the year, but it’s the rare tournament that has also missed the entire next tier of WTA stars, Wozniacki, Zvonareva, Azarenka, and Stosur. The Seoul draw is, or was, topped by Francesca Schiavone, but she’s already out, in straight sets, to Vera Dushevina. That leaves Marion Bartoli as the highest-ranked player left. She’ll play the sometimes-dangerous Vania King next.
Other names getting a jump on the fall season: the not-quite-as-promising-as-she-seemed-to-be-three-months-ago Julia Goerges, who had a hot start to the year but has played a lot of tennis since. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who doesn’t drive as many players bananas with her drop-shot-heavy game as you’d think she would. And fourth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, who has a potentially entertaining second-rounder with qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova.
Blast from the past: Eleni Danilidou
If this one doesn’t do it for you, the draw for Guangzhou is here.
The beat has yet to kick in again, but it won’t be long.