The Open Sud de France gets underway in Montpellier from January 30th onwards with Tomas Berdych heading a strong field.
Montpellier is one of the fastest growing cities in France and it was rewarded with a place on the ATP Tour back in 2010, upsurping the Lyon event on the autumn indoor swing. It's now been relocated in the schedule to the end of January, with a brand new 14,000 capacity stadium to herald the start of the 2012 European indoor circuit.
You rarely see any top ten players in action the week after the Australian Open but world number seven Berdych is making an early start to his indoor campaign. The Czech has been in sparkling form in 2012 and he had Rafa Nadal in trouble in the Aussie Open quarters before falling in four sets.
It's nice to see a strong French contingent. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is absent but the presence of Gilles Simon, Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet makes up for it. Monfils made an explosive start to the year, defeating Nadal to reach the Doha final. Too bad he couldn't do it in Melbourne but the world number 15 often seems to save his best for ATP 250 events.
Gasquet looked sharp during the first week before falling to the in-form David Ferrer in round four and he's likely to be Berdych's biggest obstacle to reaching the final this week.
And don't discount Philipp Kohlschreiber indoors. He could face Gasquet in an enticing quarter-final and he's more than capable of going all the way.
