Week in Preview: Munich, Estoril, Istanbul, Prague, Rabat

Is it possible to call a week with five different tournaments a quiet one? If it’s tennis, and it’s the middle of the clay season, the answer is yes. The first big spring European tournaments—Monte Carlo and Barcelona for the men, Stuttgart for the women—are in the books, and the bigger dual events in Madrid and Rome, as well the French Open, are coming up in May. This week the star players take a rest as they gear up for that long stretch of dirt ball; no one in either tour's Top 10 is in action. Who might take advantage of their absences? Here’s a look ahead.

*Munich, Germany

$520,232; 250 ranking points

Clay

Draw is here*

We know there are good wind players, but what about good snow players? That’s not a skill the pros are typically asked to learn, but they may need it this week in an unseasonably chilly Munich. White flakes swirled around them this weekend as they practiced.

Last year Munich provided a launching pad for a late-career clay-court breakthrough by Andy Murray. At 27, he won his first title on the surface here, then did it again the following week in Madrid. This year Murray, who reached the semis in Monte Carlo two weeks ago, declined to defend his title. But for a 250-level event with just 28 players, there’s no shortage of talent: David Goffin, Gael Monfils and Dominic Thiem are the top three seeds, but the crowd favorite will surely be German teen Alexander Zverev. As we saw in Stuttgart this weekend, where Angelique Kerber beat Laura Siegemund in the final, the natives tend to play well in Germany. Still, Goffin and Thiem are the most likely players to follow Murray’s lead and use this event as a springboard to bigger things next month.

Also here: Ernests Gulbis, Vasek Pospisil, Fabio Fognini

First-round match to watch: Juan Martin del Potro vs. Dustin Brown

Estoril, Portugal

$520,232; 250 ranking points

Clay

Draw is here

Estoril is offering the same prize money as Munich, but it can’t quite match its draw. The top three seeds are Gilles Simon, Nick Kyrgios, and Benoit Paire, all of whom offer good entertainment value in their own ways. But the star power drops off precipitously after that: Joao Sousa, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Borna Coric, Leonardo Mayer and Pablo Carreno Busta round out the seed list.

Also here: Fernando Verdasco, Kyle Edmund

Potential third-round match to watch: Kyrgios vs. Coric. These two young guns have never faced off.

*Istanbul, Turkey

$478,545; 250 ranking points

Clay

Draw is here*

Last week Bernard Tomic was the top seed in Bucharest, but he was upset in his opener by Robin Haase. Now Bernie will try it, literally, from the top again. He’s the No. 1 seed in Istanbul.

But the player who really should win the tournament, and the one who could use a title the most, is the No. 2 seed, Grigor Dimitrov. He’s had a fairly good start to the season, going 15-8 and recording a win over Murray in Miami. But Dimitrov is still ranked a too-low 28th, and he hasn’t won an event since 2014. This would seem to be the place to end that dry spell.

Name of the week: Cem Ilkel. The Turkish wild card plays Marcel Granollers in the first round.

Prague, Czech Republic

$500,000; WTA International

Clay

Draw is here

One good week, in the right place, can do wonders for a player’s status, can't it? Svetlana Kuznetsova seemed to be in slow but terminal decline before her runner-up finish in Miami earlier this month. Now she’s the top seed in Prague, a tournament with a not-too-shabby $500,000 purse and a decent field. Following Sveta on the seed list are Lucie Safarova, Karolina Pliskova and Sam Stosur. Was Kuznetsova’s Miami result a one-and-done, or is she back to stay? We’ll know more after this week.

First-round match to watch: Jelena Ostapenko vs. Ana Konjuh

*Rabat, Morocco

$250,000; WTA International

Clay

Draw is here*

Timea Bacsinszky is the top seed here, but does she have a top seed’s confidence at the moment? She’s coming off a disastrous Fed Cup weekend for Switzerland, in which she could muster just eight games in two matches against the victorious Czech team. But Bacsinszky is also coming off a semifinal run in Miami, and, after her semifinal appearance at the French Open last year, we know she can play on clay.

Also here: Cagla Buyukakcay, winner this weekend in Istanbul; Laura Siegemund, runner-up this weekend in Stuttgart; and Laura Robson.