Men's Tennis in January 2011; Find out who is playing where in Australia

Hopman Cup: 1 – 8 January 2011, Perth

Australian January tennis viewing starts with the Hopman Cup, which brings out some top tennis and gives the viewing public a taste of who has the form and stamina to play well in hot Australian conditions.

Eight countries are invited to play at this invitation only, round robin event, with a men’s and women’s player representing each country.

This year at the Hopman Cup we’ll get to see the form of Novak Djokovic, John Isner and Andy Murray.

Here is the full team list, courtesy of the Hopman Cup website.

Serbia: Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic

USA: John Isner, Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Great Britain: Andy Murray, Laura Robson

Belgium: Ruben Bemelmans, Justine Henin

Italy: Potito Starace, Francesca Shiavone

Kazkhstan: Andrey Golubev, Yaroslava Shvedova

Australia: Lleyton Hewitt, Alicia Molik

France: Nicholas Mahut, Kristina Mladenovic

Brisbane International: 2-9 January 2011, Brisbane

With a strong field and similar conditions to the Australian Open, the Brisbane International is usually a good place for the top players to get ready for the AO.

Although this year the weather has been far from the norm. In Brisbane, temperatures are expected to get back to 30 degrees C next week but so far the conditions in Brisbane have been really wet. Combine this with the weirdness of Melbourne’s weather lately, who knows what type of weather weather the players should be adjusted for by the time the second half of January rolls around.

Top 10 Players

Robin Soderling – No 5

Andy Roddick – No 8

Fernando Verdasco – No 9

The rest of the Brisbane International line up

Fish, Mardy USA No.16

Baghdatis, Marcos CYP No.20

Lopez, Feliciano ESP No.32

Mayer, Florian GER No.37

Istomin, Denis UZB No.40

Granollers, Marcel ESP No.41

Simon, Gilles FRA No.42

de Bakker, Thiemo NED No.43

Benneteau, Julien FRA No.44

Dolgopolov, Alexandr UKR No.48

Becker, Benjamin GER No.53

Berrer, Michael GER No.55

Petzschner, Philipp GER No.57

Anderson, Kevin RSA No.61

Stepanek, Radek CZE No.62

Giraldo, Santiago COL No.64

Kamke, Tobias GER No.67

Serra, Florent FRA No.69

Kubot, Lukasz POL No.70

Sela, Dudi ISR No.75

Clement, Arnaud FRA No.78

Andreev, Igor RUS No.79

It’s also worth watching the form of Australian Open wildcard winner, Marinko Matosevic, who has been given a wildcard for the Brisbane International.

Medibank International: 9-15 January 2011, Sydney

As always, expect to see some top men’s tennis going on at this Sydney tournament.

Juan Martin Del Potro has been given a wildcard and there will be a lot of interest in his comeback form, following the wrist injury and surgery that kept him out of action during 2010.

Here is the full line up of men for the Medibank International.

Sam Querrey USA No. 1

Marcos Baghdatis CYP No. 20

Ernests Gulbis LAT No. 24

Richard Gasquet FRA No. 29

Viktor Troicki SRB No. 30

Feliciano Lopez ESP No. 32

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP No. 33

Yen-Hsun Lu TPE No. 35

Florian Mayer GER No. 37

Jarkko Nieminen FIN No. 38

Juan Ignacio Chela ARG No. 39

Denis Istomin UZB No. 40

Gilles Simon FRA No. 42

Julien Benneteau FRA No. 44

Jeremy Chardy FRA No. 45

Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR No. 46

Potito Starace ITA No. 47

Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR No. 48

Andreas Seppi ITA No. 52

Juan Martin Del Potro WC

AAMI Classic: 12 – 15 January 2011, Kooyong, Melbourne

Along with the Medibank International, this tournament butts right up against the Australian Open, with only one day off between the final and Day One of the AO.

Although the matches are only 3 sets maximum, this tournament allows top ranked men to play each other and really find their form in Melbourne conditions.

Here are the players for this year’s AAMI Classic.

Jurgen Melzer

Nikolay Davydenko

Gael Monfils

Lleyton Hewitt

Mikhail Youzhny

Thomas Berdych

Jo Wilfred-Tsonga

Fernando Verdasco

Pat Cash and Henri Leconte will play in the “Legends of the Game” throughout the tournament. I’m expecting some fun from those guys!