The German Tennis Championships in Hamburg is one of the biggest events on the tour this month.
It used to be one of the major tennis events of the year, the final Masters 1000 event ahead of the French Open. It has been won by some of the greatest clay-courters in the history of the game, the likes of Rafael Nadal, Guillermo Vilas, Gustavo Kuerten, Ivan Lendl and Roger Federer, to name just a few.
A couple of years it was downgraded and moved in the calendar but as an ATP 500 event it remains the highlight of the summer European clay-court swing.
Last year it was a momentous week for Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev who came from nowhere to win the biggest title of his career. It's since inspired Golubev to help Kazakhstan reach the Davis Cup quarter-finals for the first time in their history and he's back again to defend his title.
World number seven Gael Monfils will lead the field and if he can reproduce his clay-court form from earlier in the season, he will be the man to beat. Likewise for Spain's Nicolas Almagro who cracked the top 10 for the first time earlier this year.
Almagro is mostly overshadowed by his more illustrious compatriots and he's yet to achieve his potential in the big events but the guy already has three clay titles to his name in 2011 which is not to be sniffed at.
Jurgen Melzer has not hit the heights of last season and his French Open was disappointing but the inconsistent Austrian could still go all the way here if he hits form. He reached the final in 2010 and does hold a win over Roger Federer on clay this season.
Florian Mayer has enjoyed a standout 2011 so far, reaching the top 20 and impressing on clay. However Mayer was hit hard by Germany's comprehensive Davis Cup quarter-final defeat to France in which he lost to Richard Gasquet from two sets up, and he was outplayed by a qualifier in the first round of Stuttgart last week.
