Auckland/Sydney

As usual, the week before the slam is a slow week with not many top contenders performing - you are not likely to see Rafa/Nole/Andy/Roger in action, so the fields are made up of second and lower tier players:

In Auckland, the top seeds are Ferrer, Haas and Isner; while some other notables include Baghdatis, Monfils, Kohli and Sock.

Sydney has Delpo and Janowicz as top two seeds, also playing are Pospisil and Tomic among the youngsters, as well as Stepanek, Cilic and Dolgo.

My picks are:  Ferrer and Tomic

Ferrer is the king of Auckland, so I'll go with him too. And Pospisil to continue his good work this week and win Sydney!

Is Auckland the same speed at Brisbane? Rumour has it Tennis Aussie has made sure all surfaces are the same in the run in to AO...I.e. all faster this year?

These two tournaments do not seem to be attracting much attention on the boards here.  But they should be - especially Sydney.  Both finalists are proving they are in great form, ready to challenge Rafa.  Bernie will defeat Rafa in the first round and Delpo will do the same in the QF.

Isner wins Auckland defeating Lu 7:6 7:6 with no breaks of serve.

Come on Delpo, give a lesson to this arrogant little lamb.

6:3, 4:1 for Delpo. All done here.

"Tomic won just 2 of 14 points returning del Potro's second serve, a worse percentage than the 4 of 24 he won against delPo's first serve."