Monday preview - Monpellier

Montpellier, one of the fastest-growing cities in France over the past 25 years, is the location of this week’s Open Sud de France, the indoor hard-court tournament that relocated from Lyon (1987-2009). The new multi-purpose venue called the ARENA, has a total capacity of 14,000 and seating for 7,500 during the tournament.

There are 10 Frenchmen in the main draw (not including qualifiers). The top seed is 29-year-old Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who won the biggest title of his career last year at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. The other seeds are: top Frenchman and No. 2 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 3 Gael Monfils, No. 4 and defending champ Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia (also won in 2001), No. 5 John Isner of the U.S., No. 6 Albert Montanes of Spain, No. 7 and ’06 champion Richard Gasquet, and No. 8 David Nalbandian of Argentina, a wild card entry in the tournament.

On Monday’s schedule, there are four qualifying matches, including four French players, and three main draw singles matches.

In the first main draw match, Portuguese No. 1 Frederico Gil takes on Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin for the first time on the ATP World Tour. They have split their two previous Challenger meetings.

In the next match, Gasquet, who won the title in 2006, plays German Julian Reister for the first time. Gasquet won his sixth career ATP World Tour title in Nice in May and he reached two other finals.

In the final match, 2000 champion and ’03 runner-up Arnaud Clement takes a 2-0 mark against Montanes, a two-time winner on the ATP World Tour this year.

Courtesy: ATP