Drinking beer, eating weisswurst, BMWs and there is some tennis this week in Münich

Germany, which was once the powerhouse of tennis, especially in the 90s, now it's relegated to only having a few small IS events. At the same time there is the Hamburg suing the ATP and Stuttgart almost a Mickey Mouse event.

Unlike Barcelona, this event is quite open, but this is to be expected when Nadal is not playing in a clay event. This tournament has the defending champion and Bavarian Philipp Kohlschreiber who also won the doubles as well, he has a fairly good draw, it wouldn't surprise if he defended the crown.

Mathieu and the Chilean Gonzalez are the top 2 seeds here, seems a bit strange that Gonzo would pull out of Monte Carlo to play there, then again small event and bigger appearance fee would help this and also he can use this to prepare for Rome, Hamburg and maybe Dusseldorf. He plays Sela who took him out in the Davis Cup playoffs last year, on this surface it should be a comfortable win for the Chilean.

Korolev and Cilic, could be potentially an interesting match between 2 youngsters, who go about the game very differently. Korolev with his power and not always the best shot selection and Cilic who works very hard and is quite steady.

Andy Seppi likes playing in German-speaking environments and will be looking to erase that poor performance against Querrey, where everything was just not working very well, he has quite a good section of the draw, got to take advantage of it.

Best match of this round is Monfils and Andreev who had quite good weeks in Monte Carlo last week, but anything could happen in this match. Andreev has been a bit inconsistent this season and Altur isn't with him as he has been over the last years and Thierry Champion is back with Monfils, though he will still play in Austria when standing to return serve. It's a hard match to gauge, but either player is good enough to take the title.

Del Potro has to get his season in order after some back problems, this is a good as place as any, to start building his ranking back up and now he has Franco Davin as his trainer, the ex-Gaudio coach, so he is used to some difficult characters.

Marat Safin is there probably looking to get a new BMW on a discount, he plays Charly Berlocq aka the panther, for his speed across the court. Berlocq flew in from Bermuda not long ago, so Marat could take advantage. At the moment it seems he can't string anything consistent, one day plays well, the next day awful. He has lost that bit of speed, which will make it harder for him.

Auf gehts Seppi, take your first title here, but like I said at the start, at least this event is open and that is something that has been lacking over the recent clay season.