It’s easy, at the conclusion of a grueling Australian Open, to believe all of tennis is being played by the top four.  The entirety of the top four took a week off.  For some, like Rafa, it’s rest and training.  Rafa promised not to play until Indian Wells and has chosen not to play Davis Cup.  Roger Federer is training on clay for a meeting with the US team in about 6 days time.  Djokovic is probably recovering.

But everyone else continues to play the tour.  The tour splits in three different locations.  Two are in Europe.  Montpellier is in France and may have the strongest field of all tournaments played this week.  Zagreb is in Croatia.  Vina del Mar is in Chile.  There is a clay circuit that moves around South America that will include Brazil and Mexico in upcoming weeks.

Let’s start with Montpellier which is officially known as the Open Sud de France.  When Nadal lost to Djokovic in Melbourne, he could at least hold his head up high that he kept the match close.  Another person who could feel the same is Tomas Berdych.  He must have felt close enough to beat Nadal.  Last year, he wanted to stay in the top ten and win 50 matches.  Berdych is probably looking to win more tournaments.  He won Shanghai last year, but that was his first tournament win in more than two years.

As the top seed in Montpellier, Berdych wanted to get another title.  His run went through, not surprisingly, a lot of French players: Florent Serra, Nicolas Mahut, then German Philipp Kohlschreiber, and then third seed, Gael Monfils in the finals.

Monfils is ranked 13, one spot behind Gilles Simon (with Monfils runner up spot, he may move ahead of Simon), many feel he is top ten material, and he has been there in the past.

Monfils pushed Berdych to three sets, but the tall, rangy Czech eventually won in three sets: 64, 46, 63.

In Zagreb, the field was considerably weaker with Ivan Ljubicic, hometown boy, as top seed.  Russian veteran, Mikhail Youzhny, beat Lukas Lacko 62 63.  Lacko beat defending champ, Marcos Baghdatis, in the semis.

In Vin del Mar, held in Chile, Argentinians dominated.  Chile’s best players are now getting old and there’s no one new to replace them.  Argentines were 3 of the 4 semifinalists including Juan Monaco, Carlos Berlocq, and Juan Ignacio Chela (Nalbandian and del Potro did not play).  Jeremy Chardy of France was the only non Argentine (and opted to play on clay in Chile instead of playing in France).  Monaco will meet Berlocq in the finals which will be played later today.