Mid-Week 18

Looking ahead to Wednesday's action, there are some surprisingly tantalizing match-ups, considering that it's the second round of an off week on the ATP tour. But not everywhere.

For example Roger Federer, who has not had the best run since winning the Australian Open, should have a chance to find his form this week, starting tomorrow. He'll face off against Bjorn Phau, ranked 138th in the world. Why Phau is playing in Portugal rather than his home tournament in Munich is beyond me. He certainly couldn't have gotten a tougher second round there. Gael Monfils and Ivan Ljubicic are also in action in tomorrow, and if both are healthy, should not be troubled. Honestly, there's not a lot going on in Estoril. Things may get a bit more exciting in the latter stages of the tournament, but the field just doesn't appear to be that deep.

In Belgrade, on the other hand, there are some really appetizing matches to be played. Andreas Seppi plays Richard Gasquet, who quite nearly double-bageled Olivier Rochus in the first round. John Isner faces off against Josselin Ouanna, a French player who I really like, and who is hoping to find his form before the French Open in a few weeks. The other big server in the field, Ivo Karlovic, plays Igor Andreev. Both of those matches should be interesting - the clay should blunt the effectiveness of the tall men's serves, but both Ouanna and Andreev like to win off big groundstrokes. I'd actually enjoy watching both of those matches. Sam Querrey, another big server, faces off against Evgeny Korolev, and that one could be fun to watch, too. If you happen to be up and available from 6 AM Eastern Time tomorrow, try to catch some on streaming, if you can.

Finally, in Munich, we have a match-up sort of like Roger Federer's, above. Marin Cilic, who had a great run at the Australian open and then won his following tournament, but since then has had less than stellar results. He's hoping to get some traction as well, and a match-up against Michael Berrer should help. Clay is not the German's best surface, and even though it isn't Cilic's either, he should be able to handle himself. Mikhail Youzhny is also in action, against another overmatched German, Andreas Beck. Germany's current number one player, Philipp Kohlschreiber, opens against Daniel Brands, which means that a German is guaranteed to get a win tomorrow! With no Tommy Haas around, that's a good thing.

But the most excitement taking place tomorrow is on the women's tour, in Rome. Serena Williams returned triumphantly in her first match since the Aussie Open. And in what must be helpful in her quest to get some good matches under her belt before the next grand slam, her section of the draw is opening up nicely. Zvonareva lost, Stosur withdrew, and Kuznetsova lost, leaving her the only seed remaining in her quarter. She should make it straight to the semifinals.

Her sister, on the other hand, is facing much sterner competition. Venus plays Shahar Peer tomorrow, followed by the winner of Jankovic and Wickmayer. And then the winner between those four should get to face Serena in the semis. On the other side of the draw, Ana Ivanovic is desperately trying to stage a comeback, but she'll be very strongly tested in her match against Elena Dementieva. I think that Ivanovic got through Azarenka more easily than she should have, so she'll really have to get some of the old magic to get a win against Elena. But she has played that well before - just not recently.

Caroline Wozniacki, in the bottom quarter of the draw, should have a path to the semis that's almost as easy as Serena's. Pennetta and Schiavone unfortunately put up very little resistance in their home tournament. Maybe the pressure of the situation got to them, but they won a combined total of seven games. The only other seed left in Caroline's quarter of the draw is Aggie Radwanska. That would be a good quartefinal, but I give the Dane the edge.

The last few weeks before a grand slam are always interesting. Players want to have good momentum going into a major tournament, but they won't to be exhausted, either. Federer needs a tournament win here, and it wouldn't hurt for Serena to bag the title, either. But these are not the titles that they really want to win. So they play to win, but they aren't playing with the same focus or intensity we'll see in a couple of weeks from them.