Most of the top ten pros played last week and gave themselves a week off to practice leading up to the Australian Open.

However, some players seem to prefer playing the week before a major.  In Auckland, David Ferrer beat Santiago Giraldo, 6-3, 7-5, to reach the finals where he will face David Nalbandian who beat Almagro, 6-4, 6-2.  It’s unclear, sometimes, whether players playing so close to a major will tank, just so they can head over to the tournament site.  In any case, Nalbandian has to worry about Hewitt in the first round, so a good showing against Ferrer should be good prep for him.

In Sydney, Gilles Simon reaches the final by beating Ernests Gulbis.  It’s hard to say whether Gulbis was this awful or not.  Gulbis had a break in the first set, but Simon broke back and then won the tiebreak.  Already Gulbis was missing a ton on his forehand and even his backhand.  He made a brilliant smash of his racquet, but still proceeded to be broken three times in a row, and lose the second set, 6-0.  It’s a rather pathetic display from this wildly talented player.  Simon mostly kept the ball in play and let Gulbis flake out.

One reason, it turns out, is because Gulbis was suffering from the heat and humidity.  He says he doesn’t like humidity and wanted to end the points quickly.  And that he did.  He’ll need to get back in shape quickly especially if the weather heats up again in Melbourne (it’s been raining, which is delaying qualies at the Aussie Open).

Simon awaits the winner of Troicki and Florian Mayer.  Troicki is up an early break in the first set.

None of these players gets that friendly a draw at the Aussie Open.  Simon will open up playing Lu, a guy that plays somewhat like Simon.  Should he win, he gets defending champ, Roger Federer.  Florian Mayer gets Nikolay Davydenko in the first round.  Mayer is just short of being seeded, so Davydenko has his hands full, but it’s a bad draw for Mayer too.

Troicki is in a little better shape, but might face Djokovic in the third round.  Gulbis opens with Benjamin Becker and then possibly Dolgopolov.  He needs to get his head straight (or his conditioning straight), or he may exit early.