Nicolas Almagro goes for back to back titles as the Golden Swing moves on to Bueno Aires for the Copa Claro.
Almagro was on song last week as he claimed his second Brasil Open title with a win over Alexandr Dolgopolov. However the Spaniard faces a sterner test this week with a much stronger field in Argentina.
Almagro could face a rematch with Dolgopolov as early as the quarter-finals. The Spaniard won fairly comfortably in the Brasil Open final at the weekend but Dolgopolov is improving rapidly all the time.
Santiago champion Tommy Robredo is in the same half along with former world number three David Nalbandian. Nalbandian scored a win over Almagro on the way to the Auckland final last month although he made a shaky start to the Golden Swing, losing in the second round of Santiago.
The man to beat this week is second seed Stanislas Wawrinka in the bottom half. Not only is the Swiss in the form of his life, having won the Chennai title and reached the Aussie Open quarter-finals, he has as good a draw as he could have hoped for this week. There are a few clay-court specialists like Juan Ignacio Chela and Juan Monaco who could test him but Wawrinka is a class act on the dirt, having made a Masters Series final on the surface a couple of years ago.
