Feliciano Lopez is a surprise top seed at the ATP Orleans Challenger this week.
The indoor season is well underway and there's some big European challengers coming up over the next month. However the presence of Lopez this week is something of a mystery. The Spaniard could easily have been seeded at the ATP events in Stockholm and Moscow yet he's taken a wildcard into a challenger event.
As it is, he'll be overwhelming favourite after reaching the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters at the weekend. Lopez took out Tomas Berdych and Janko Tipsarevic before falling to David Ferrer in three sets and at his best he'll make mincemeat of most of this field although he does have a tricky opener against Arnaud Clement.
Michael Llodra is another surprise wildcard entry. The world number 33 has struggled throughout the indoor swing so far and is on a four match losing streak. He'll be looking to play his way into form ahead of bigger events in his homeland such as Montpellier and the Paris Masters.
Nicolas Mahut relishes this time of the year as he's able to compete almost exclusively in France. He pushed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hard in the Metz quarter-finals last month but hasn't been able to reproduce that form at the crunch end of the challenger events so far, exiting several times in the quarters.
The week's most dangerous floater award has to go to Richard Berankis. The hugely talented Latvian is a brilliant returner and impressed in Mons a couple of weeks ago.
Also look out for Eduoard Roger-Vasselin who took out top seed Gilles Muller on the way to the Rennes Challenger semis last week.
