Tennis Top Gear

By Mike McIntyre

Alright everybody it's time again for some tennis that really matters at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Both the ATP and WTA Tour's are in the house and that should make for a great week of coverage for our sport. This has always been a terrific event and it set the record for attendance outside of a Grand Slam event in 2008 with over 300,000 spectators during a twelve day period.

Let's have a look at the men's draw and see how things shape up.

Roger Federer is back on the scene for the first time since his Australian Open title at the end of January. The world number one has just overcome an apparent lung infection and coupled with his recent inactivity I don't think we should expect all that much from him. Yes, he will likely make it deep into the draw, but I would be surprised if Roger made it past the semi-finals here this year. Roger gets a first round bye as do all thirty-two seeded players in the tournament. His first capable opponent could be Marcos Baghdatis in the third round.

Also in the top-half of the draw are the two Andy's - 4th seeded Murray and 7th seeded Roddick. Murray tanked in Dubai in his only appearance since losing in the finals of the Aussie Open to Federer, while Roddick has played a fairly heavy schedule on the hard-courts of North America.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also lurks in the top-half while David Nalbandian seems ready to return to tournament play. Coming back in February after nine months away from the game due to hip surgery, Nalbandian withdrew before his third round match in Buenos Aires with a leg injury. The talented Nalbandian played the role of hero this past week in Davis Cup play as he closed out a victory over Sweden with a four set win over Andreas Vinciguerra. If he can stay healthy for an extended period, look for Nalbandian to quickly return to his typical top-twenty form.

The bottom-half of the draw contains 2nd seeded Novak Djokovic who recently defended his title in Dubai and seems poised for a bigger result here on the Masters Series stage. Right behind him is 3rd seed, Rafael Nadal, who returns to the tour after a recurring knee injury forced him to withdraw in Australia where he trailed Andy Murray in the quarter-finals. Expectations are low for Nadal as he has been away from the game for over a month and let's just hope he can finish the tournament on his own terms. Defending his title in India Wells from 2009 is simply not going to happen.

Playing on fire so far this year and also in the bottom section is hard-serving John Isner of the United States and veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain. Isner won his first career title in Auckland in January and then was a finalist in Memphis, while Ferrero won back-to-back clay events in Costa Do Sauipe and Buenos Aires.

Also worth watching is Nikolay Davydenko who is likely still kicking himself for self-destructing against Federer in Melbourne and youngster Marin Cilic who made the semi-finals down-under and is ready to assert himself as a top-level threat in every event he enters.

I feel that with players like Federer, Nadal and Davydenko dealing with recent injuries or illnesses we are in for a Djokovic/Roddick final in Indian Wells. Those are my picks in the ATP World Tour Fantasy Challenge that begins Thursday at 2pm ET. Who will you choose?

By Mike McIntyre

For all you real tennis fanatics out there, check out the ATP World Tour Fantasy Challenge that is set to begin at Indian Wells this week.

Fans get to make their bracket picks in each of the nine Masters Series events on the tour. The winner at the end of the year gets a trip for two to the Barclays ATP Tour Finals event in London, England. The three runners-up will receive some nice gift cards to use on Head products.

I have always enjoyed these types of promotions and it's fun to see how you stack up against other tennis fans out there. You have to be quite knowledgeable but also a bit lucky to make a good run. You might also want to mark the dates of all nine events in your day-planner because if you miss registering for one of the tournaments in time you have pretty much blown your chances of staying in the hunt.

I've gone with a Djokovic/Roddick final in my bracket - how about you? I think Federer is going to be vulnerable due to his lack of match play since the Aussie Open and his recent lung infection. Nadal is also just returning from injury so count him out as a contender. Murray has been inconsistent, Del Potro is not playing due to his own injury issues and Davydenko is still dealing with the fact he blew it in Australia against Federer. To me that leaves Roddick and Djokovic to have a pretty good run this week.

You have until Thursday March 11th at 2pm ET to make your picks for the BNP Paribas Open. Good luck!

By Mike McIntyre

Here are the men's and women's qualifying draws for the upcoming joint ATP and WTA event in Indian Wells, California. The BNP Paribas Open begins on March 10th.

On the women's side Britain's Elena Baltacha is the number one seed and has already made it through to the