A Look at Week 5

So even though one of the biggest tournaments of the year just finished up yesterday, the tennis season is starting right up again, with three ATP tournaments and Fed Cup action next week. In fact, tennis action continued in the minor leagues during week 2 of the Australian Open, with top seeds Michael Berrer, Michael Russel, and Eduardo Schwank winning challenger events. Mario Ancic played in Germany, and lost in the first round to Kazakh player Mikhail Kukushkin. And in Hawaii, Donald Young beat Grigor Dimitrov (I'm calling it right now - they'll be playing each other again in the 2015 U.S. Open final) before retiring against eventual champion Russel in the semis.

In other challenger news, two-time grand slam finalist Mark Philippousis is playing in the Dallas Challenger event this week. He opens against 159th-ranked American Michael Yani. He hasn't played a match since 2006! Another former great ws in action in the lower tiers of the game last week, when former French Open champion Gaston Gaudio played in the qualifying tournament for the first clay court event of the year, in Santiago, Chile. He lost in the second round to an Argentine named Juan-Martin Aranguren. Who?

The Santiago event is an interesting one. The first event of the year that takes place on clay, and the only event in Chile all year. As a result, Chilean number one Fernando Gonzalez has owned this event, winning it the last two years and four times overall. He's back this year, and hopefully the move from Vina Del Mar to Santiago will not affect his success.

They really could just call this the South American Open, because the top six seeds are all from the continent, as well 17 of the 32 players in the draw. That number should go up by a few once the qualifiers are placed. Gonzalez is the favorite by far (the second seed is ranked 20 places below him), and he'll probably get another South American dirtballer in the final. Will it be Monaco, Bellucci, Zeballos, or Acasuso?

The other two tournaments going on this week are both hard court events, one in Johannesburg and one in Zagreb. The SA Tennis Open in South Africa is just in its second year, and the tournament still hasn't quite figured out how to draw the top talent in the week after the Aussie Open. It's a tough ask, but when your eighth seed is 104th-ranked Stephane Robert from France, your tournament is not in the best shape.

There are still some excellent players in the draw, with top seed Gael Monfils hoping to follow up his countryman Tsonga's victory last year. Tsonga opted not to try to defend his title, but another victory by a black tennis player would be just as poignant in South Africa this year as it was last year. He'll have to compete with David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez, as well as some mid-level players who have shown potential for better things, like Marco Chiudinelli and Rajeev Ram. There are also a few dangerous floaters in the draw, like Jarkko Nieminen, Josselin Ouanna, and Dominik Hrbaty, who opens against the top seed.

I admit that I also like Dustin Brown, the top (and only) ranked Jamaican tennis player, who looks exactly like you might expect a Jamaican tennis player to look. But he'll have a tough opening round against Swiss number three Marco Chiudinelli.

The strongest field of the week is in Zagreb, where Marin Cilic is trying to defend his title from last year. It's going to be tough for him to keep up his momentum, since he has to be jaded after his run at the Australian Open. Ivan Ljubicic won the tournament the year before, and he's the second seed. They're both Croations, so they should enjoy playing in their backyards. Ivo Karlovic, the third-ranked Croation is also in the draw. The number two and three Serbian players are also here, Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic. The floaters here are probably the Rochus Brothers and "Crazy" Daniel Koellerer. But with these tournaments the week after slams, the top players can sometimes be overtired and the lower-ranked guys have a chance to show their stuff. And just like every week, anything can happen.

On the women's side, this week is all about the first round of Fed Cup. Since Fed Cup only has three rounds over the course of the year (compared to Davis Cup's four) there are only eight teams in action at the beginning. As is often the case, two of the potential winners, Serbia and Russia, are meeting in the first round. The U.S. will be Williams sister-less as they face France. The other two ties feature Italy against Ukraine and the Czech Republic against Germany. A few words on player selections.

The top two Serbs are in action for their team, Jankovic and Ivanovic, while the top seven (!!) Russian women are skipping out on this event. World number 31 Alisa Kleybanova is their top-ranked player for this tie. Not bringing any of your top seven players is going to make this tough for Russia.

It's not like the U.S., where the Williams sisters aren't playing but the #3 American, Melanie Oudin, is. America is also bringing one of the top-ranked doubles players in the world, so they'll have a shot. Fortunately, France isn't bringing their top talent, either. Their top player at the tie is world #65 and French #4 Alize Cornet.

I'll admit I don't have a lot to say about the Czech Republic and Germany, because those are eight players whose names I know, but whose achievements I can't list off the top of my head. I'm just not as well-versed in the mid-to-lower tiers of the WTA tour.

But I can say that the Ukraine-Italy tie may turn out to be the most interesting, amazingly enough. Ukraine is making due exclusively with the success of the "Flying" Bondarenko sisters (as Brad Gilbert calls them) and defending champs Italy have Pennetta and Schiavone. Can Italy be Fed Cup's answer to Spain in the Davis Cup?