OF all the three 250k events over the week, Montpellier’s Open Sud de France is set to be the biggest of the lot with a raft of top 20 players leading the charge in what will be a competitive event in the first week of February.

FAVOURITE:

Gael Monfils

After opting to play in his home nation, Monfils will start as favourite after a solid fourth round appearance at Melbourne Park. The top 10 player is the number one seed at Montpellier and with the withdrawal of the in-form Alex Rublev, he has plenty of reasons to be confident. A loss to Australian Open finalist, Dominic Thiem ended his campaign, but Monfils played some terrific tennis up until that point. He was able to contain the big serving Ivo Karlovic and the danger man in Ernests Gulbis, and would back himself in her against a number of players he can beat, especially at one. With a favourable draw, Monfils would hope to repeat his efforts here from 2010 and 2014, where he won the title.

CONTENDERS:

David Goffin (Belgium)

Had a superb ATP Cup where he knocked off Rafael Nadal and Grigor Dimitrov, then reached the third round at Melbourne Park before falling to a red-hot Andrey Rublev. He is a player consistently around the top 30 mark, but has only won two tournaments in the past five years – both in 2017. Yet to take out a major tournament, he is good enough to play five or six strong matches in a row and cause an upset here or there, but he just has to physically do it. Moved up to 10th in the ATP Rankings after the Australian Open and will start as the number one seed in Montpellier.

Denis Shapovalov (Canada)

Will be seething after a super disappointing first round exit at Melbourne Park, going down to Hungarian, Marton Fucsovics in four sets. He showed so much promise in the Davis Cup and ATP Cup, stunning top 10 players Stefanos Tsitsipas and Zverev in straight sets. He also pushed Novak Djokovic and Alex de Minaur to three sets in the tournament, only losing to the world number one in a deciding set tiebreaker. Since then though he went down to eventual winner, Ugo Humbert in Auckland, and then bowed out to Fucsovics a week later at the Australian Open. More rested than the other players in the top bracket there – due to the early exit – he should be refreshed and rejuvenated physically and mentally to attack the title and add to his maiden win at Stockholm last year.

Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada)

Almost identically to Shapovalov, the 19-year-old Canadian would be really disappointed with a first round exit at Melbourne Park. There were high hopes he could challenge some of the world’s best players after going deep in multiple tournament in 2019, and while he is still a teenager, has so much potential. He lost out to the experienced Gulbis, and will want to build on his performance from the week before where he made a semi-final in Adelaide before going down to eventual winner Rublev. Seeded fifth here, a potential quarte r finals match looms with Goffin, which makes it a tough draw but we know what he is capable of on his best day.

ROUGHIE:

Ugo Humbert (France)

Took out his maiden title at Auckland last month with a huge run to the final and win over Benoit Paire in the decider. He is back on home soil and has to be one of the chances, especially against some of the international competitors. He has the shotmaking and style to become a top 10 player, and he has made giant leaps in the last 12 months. He did run into trouble against John Millman in the first round of the Australian Open, but prefers his power-on-power rallies rather than taking on a counter puncher work horse. He has an incredibly tough draw though, coming up against the always troubling Feliciano Lopez in the first round, with a second round looming against either of his compatriots Gilles Simon or Richard Gasquet, followed by a quarter finals matchup with Shapovalov. Not easy, and it will take his best tennis to make it through the tournament.

DARK HORSE:

Jannik Sinner (Italy)

There were plenty of players who could fall into this category, but the ATP Next Gen Finals winner from 2019 has been building well over the last 12 months. Still only 18, the red haired baseliner competed strongly against eventual finalist, Benoit Paire in Auckland before defeating Max Purcell on home soil in the first round at Melbourne Park. Sinner can be erratic with his shotmaking at times, but when he is hitting them sweetly, he looks like a star of the future. The Italian teenager went down to Fucsovics in three sets in the second round, but as the Hungarian showed throughout the tournament, he was no easy opponent, making it to the fourth round.