Week in Preview: February opens with five events on four continents

WATCH: Australian Open finalist Elena Rybakina is the No. 3 seed in Abu Dhabi this week.

A month in Australia and a weekend of Davis Cup have brought the players together to start the 2023 season. Now it’s time for them to scatter across four continents, as the tours’ weekly grind begins in earnest. Nothing major or historic typically happens in February, but if you like to see a lot of tennis, in different places and on different surfaces, this is the month for you. It kicks off with five tournaments this week; here’s a look ahead at the draws, and what’s at stake for the players in them.

Dallas Open (ATP)

• Dallas
• $822,585; ATP 250
• Indoor hard court
• Draw is here

Coming into the Australian Open, the time seemed ripe for Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe to make major Grand Slam statements. Instead, Fritz went out in the second round, and Tiafoe followed him one round later. Then both watched as the lower-ranked Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton, and Sebastian Korda made Slam statements of their own by carrying the U.S. flag into the second week.

Now Fritz and Tiafoe are the mostly highly touted players, from any country, at the Dallas Open. They’re the top two seeds at this 250, which includes 12 Americans in its 28-player field.

Can Fritz and Foe get a restart in front of the home crowds? Denis Shapovalov and Miomir Kecmanovic are the third and fourth seeds, and J.J. Wolf, another U.S. player who struck some surprising gold Down Under, is No. 6. Tiafoe could face Wolf in the third round.

Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open (WTA)

• Abu Dhabi, UAE
• $780,637; WTA 500
• Hard court
• Draw is here

The WTA’s annual trek through the Arabian peninsula has been extended by a week this year. The women will start in Abu Dhabi on Monday, before making their traditional stops in Doha and Dubai.

Abu Dhabi is a 500. Points-wise, that makes it the biggest tournament of the week on either tour. But with the WTA’s Top 7 absent, it feels more like a tune-up event than a blockbuster of its own. No. 8 Daria Kasatkina is the top seed, followed by Belinda Bencic, Australian Open finalist Elena Rybakina, Veronika Kudermetova and Jelena Ostapenko.

Rybakina, Bencic, Ostapenko and Karolina Pliskova, who is unseeded here, all had successful Australian campaigns. Were any of them a harbinger of bigger things in 2023?

First-round matches to watch:

Ostapenko vs. Danielle Collins

Pliskova vs. Garbiñe Muguruza

Open de Sud France (ATP)

• Montpellier, France
• $820,000; ATP 250
• Indoor hard court
• Draw is here

The young guns take over in Montpellier this week. At least that’s what the seedings say: 19-year-old Holger Rune is No. 1; Jannik Sinner, a relative elder statesman at 21, is No. 2. Each of these guys made the fourth round at the Australian Open, but each was likely hoping to go farther. Especially Rune, who squandered a fifth-set lead to Andrey Rublev. He’ll have a chance to put that painful memory behind him this week.

Also here: Borna Coric, Robert Bautista Agut, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina

First-round match for French fans to watch: 36-year-old Richard Gasquet will take on his 18-year-old countryman Arthur Fils.

Upper Austria Ladies Linz (WTA)

• Linz, Austria
• $250,000; WTA 250
• Indoor hard court
• Draw is here

Linz has traditionally been a season-closing event; this year it has shifted to the other end of the WTA schedule. That doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference, as far the field is concerned. It features one Top 10 player, Maria Sakkari; one ranked between No. 10 and No. 20, Ekaterina Alexandrova; and one ranked between No. 20 and No. 30, Irina-Camelia Begu.

Sakkari would seem to be entering a crucial stretch. Last year in February and March, she made the finals in St. Petersburg and Indian Wells. Then her results fell off the table; this year’s Australian Open marked the fourth straight Slam where she failed to get past the third round. She’s ranked No. 7 now, but she’ll need to start winning again to stay there.

Cordoba Open (ATP)

• Cordoba, Argentina
• $713,495; ATP 250
• Red clay
• Draw is here

So far this week we’ve been to Asia, Europe, and North America, but there’s still one more continent, and one more playing surface, to go. The Golden Swing through the red-clay courts of South America starts this week in Cordoba.

Admittedly, it starts a little slowly. This is a 250, with a mostly local field of players, and a top seed, Diego Schwartzman, currently ranked just 28th. But the weather will be warm, and the fans should come out to see Schwartzman and the seven other Argentines in the draw, including steadily-rising No. 2 seed Francisco Cerundolo.