Let’s start in Estoril, Portugal’s only ATP level event.  Last year, it was Albert Montanes, who upset Roger Federer, defending his title over local, Frederico Gil, who was trying to be the first Portuguese player to win an ATP singles event.  This year, Federer didn’t show up.

Instead, we have Juan Martin del Potro trying to win his second title of the year, all the more impressive given his tremendous amount of time off tour last year.  He will face perhaps the second (or third) most successful clay courter of 2010.  Last year, Fernando Verdasco started off really well on clay.

He made the finals of Monte Carlo (won only a game from Rafa), then he won Barcelona over Soderling, then the semis of Rome (he lost to David Ferrer, who also had a good clay court season) before losing early to Melzer in Madrid.  Little did we know then that Verdasco would not play well the rest of the year.  He played the week before the French, then lost to Almagro.  He just seemed burned out from playing too much.

This final is Verdasco’s second this year.  He lost to Raonic in San Jose.

In Munich, Davydenko hopes to regain some form.  He beat Radek Stepanek who retired after falling back 4-0 in the second set.   He plays Florian Mayer, who beat fellow German, Philipp Petzschner.  Davydenko once sought German citizenship, and can speak the language.  He still plays frequently in Germany.

Davydenko had been struggling with confidence issues.  He appears to have finally switched to a Dunlop model (he has been with them since about a year ago, but was still playing with a disguised Prince until roughly Barcelona).  This is Davydenko’s first final since Doha (losing to Federer there).

Finally, in Belgrade, the Djokovic family’s tournament, Serbian favorite son, Djokovic shows he can still win on clay despite skipping Monte Carlo.  Belgrade doesn’t have many top players.  He will face Feliciano Lopez in the finals after Tipsarevic, who recently lampooned Djokovic, didn’t play the semifinals due to injury.

Next week, all the big boys come to play at Madrid, the second of two Masters 1000 events on clay.  The following week, the big boys head to Rome for the third Masters 1000 event.  There’s a week for small ATP 250 events, and the French Open starts.