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4/4/10 11:11 PM | Ricky Dimon
Sandwiched in between two Masters events, this week's Grand Prix Hassan II has struggled to lure the top players in the game. As a result, Stanislas Wawrinka is the tournament's No. 1 seed.
The clay-court season kicks off this week with 250-point events in Casablanca and Houston. Four Top 30 players headline the field in Houston, but few of the top guys appear eager to make a trip from the U.S. to Morocco with yet another Masters tournament looming on the horizon.
Not even defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero is in the draw, although that should come as no surprise since Ferrero is ranked much higher now than he was in 2009. This spring his focus is on Masters and slams rather than any kind of ranking improvement.
The proverbial door is open for players like Stanislas Wawrinka, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Victor Hanescu, and Lukasz Kubot. As the top four seeds at the Grand Prix Hassan II, those four men get byes straight to the second round. As a sign of just how far Kubot has come in the last 12 months, he did not even qualify for last year's event; now he is the No. 4 seed (the Pole won the Casablanca doubles title in 2009).
With no clear-cut favorite, this Casablanca crown is wide open to everyone, not merely the top four. Eighth-seeded Florent Serra finished runner-up to Ferrero last season and has been in good form this year. Paul-Henri Mathieu, the No. 5 seed, has been hurt but he won the Grand Prix Hassan II title in 2007 that should give him some confidence.
The winner of a difficult first-round match between Olivier Rochus and Richard Gasquet could end up doing some serious damage. Rochus is coming off a shocking win over Novak Djokovic at the Sony Ericsson Open, while Gasquet has always been solid on the slow stuff.
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