Sunrise Challenger Update

While most of the tennis world's attention is drawn to the West coast of the United States for the BNP Paribas Masters Series event at Indian Wells, there is another tournament going on this week with more marquee players than you would find at your average 250-tier event on any given week on the ATP Tour.

While the challenger circuit is mostly the minor leagues of the tennis world, filled with young hopefuls on their way up and aging veterans hoping to get back to their former glory, there are a handful of challenger tournaments that have carved out, through hard work and a little bit of luck, a really nice niche in the tennis calender.

The BMW Tennis Championship in Sunrise, Florida is one of those challenger tournaments. Situated during the second week of the 1.5-week long Indian Wells tourney, the Sunrise tournament is situated in close proximity to the next Masters Series event in Miami, which makes it a frequent stop for relatively highly-ranked players who didn't play at Indian Wells (or who didn't play for very long) in order to get some momentum for the next Masters event.

Last year, Robin Soderling was having a middling start to the season. He was 5-5 after losing to Nicolas Lapentti in the second round in Indian Wells, but he didn't commit to Sunrise in time to make the main draw. So he played through qualifying, into a challenger event, and ended up beating Gilles Muller, Rainer Schuettler, Feliciano Lopez, and Tomas Berdych on his way to taking the title. It's not often you see a challenger tournament with a field that strong.

And while Soderling wasn't able to build on his momentum right away, (he lost in the second round at Miami as well, to Robert Kendrick) his year took a turn starting at the French Open. After his miraculous run to the final, in which he became the first player ever to beat Rafael Nadal on the red clay of Roland Garros, he made the round of 16 at Wimbledon and the quarters at the US Open, losing to Federer both times. He also won the tournament in Bastaad and made the semifinals at the end of year championships.

This year, he's in the top ten and still in action at Indian Wells, so he won't be defending his title at Sunrise. But there is still a loaded field. One of the opening matches features Richard Gasquet against Gilles Simon, two players who have shown glimpses of their ability, but haven't been able to put it all together lately. Radek Stepanek is also there, who it was just announced is marrying the retiring Nicole Vaidisova this summer. His year has stalled out, engagement to a beautiful 20-year old notwithstanding. After making the final in Brisbane and losing to Andy Roddick, he has won only one match in his next three tournaments.

There are a handful of players in action at the 2010 BMW Tennis Championship who have lingered on the edge of obscurity, those players who always seem to be threatening to make a big move but never quite able to do it. Last year, Robin Soderling was in that camp. This year, he's playing J.W. Tsonga for a likely shot at Andy Murray in the querterfinals at Indian Wells. Maybe someone else will make that jump into the top tier, this year.