A preview of The Asian Swing

After the US Open there has been the Davis Cup and then the tour moved over to Asia. 

In the Asian Swing there are five different tournaments. The first two tournaments of the swing are at the same time with Bangkok and Kuala Lumpa. Both of these tournaments are 250 tournments. After these tournaments we find the two 500 tournaments in the shape of Beijing and Tokyo. After these two weeks we find the main event of the Asian swing, the Masters tournament, Shanghai.

The reigning champion in Bangkok is Guillermo Garcia-Lopez after he won his second career title. The main match of last year's tournament was the match between Garcia-Lopez and Nadal where Garcia-Lopez saved 24 out of 26 break points! This year the top four seeds are Andy Murray, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. In the semi-finals this year we have Andy Murray vs Gilles Simon and on the other side of the draw we have the young American, Donald Young vs Gael Monfils.

In Kuala Lumpa this year the top seeds are Nicolas Almagro, Victor Troicki, Janko Tipsarevic and Jurgen Melzer. Last year's champion was Mikhail Youzhny who is not back this year to try and retain his title. The two Serbians seeded 2nd and 3rd have made it to the last four but the other two seeds in the top four have fallen short of the Semi-Finals. The semi-finals are Nishikori vs Tipsarevic and the other is Victor Troicki vs Marcos Baghdatis.

The first of the two 500 tournaments is Beijing or the China Open. In the Chinese Open you can always expect to see some big names at the tournament. The top four seeds so far in the Tournament are Gael Monfils, Tomas Berdych, Nicolas Almagro and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga. Last year's champion was Novak Djokovic and he also won the title in 2009 as well.

The second of the two tournaments is Tokyo. Tokyo is the longest-running tennis tournament in the whole of Asia with its first appearance in 1973. This year Tokyo will have the pleasure of having Rafael Nadal try to defend his championship. A very strong group of players will contest the championship this year. Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, David Ferrer and Mardy Fish will all be part of the tournament this year.

The Final tournament of the swing is the Masters 1000 tournament hosted in Shanghai. The tournament was conceived only in 2009 when it was voted the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Tournament of the Year, as voted by the ATP players. The two past winners of the tournament was Andy Murray last year when he defeated Roger Federer and in 2009 Nikolay Davydenko. This year the top four seeds are the top four players in the world apart from Roger Federer.