The BCR Open here in Bucharest will see eyes divert from the hard courts of Flushing Meadows where Roger Federer claimed a record equalling fourth successive US Open title yesteday, to the red clay of this €353,450 event where clay court specialists such as top seeded Nicolas Almagro and defending champion Jurgen Melzer are competing for the silverware.

Almagro is riding at an all time high of 26 in the rankings and is enjoying his best season on the tour having defended his Valencia title and backing that up with strong performances in Bastad and Buenos Aires where he reached the final and semi-finals respectively. How will the mercurial Spaniard handle the pressure of being the tournament favourite to lift the title? His suspect temperament has often proved to be his downfall in the past, however, there have been signs more recently that the Spaniard is learning to control his emotions a little better, and should he stay focused he should at least feature in the title round.

Second seeded Fillippo Volandri has been handed a bum draw with the dangerous and imposing Gael Monfils awaiting him in the opening round. The Frenchman has not had much on court success lately, and will be hoping to cause an upset or two on his way to title glory.

The defending champion Jurgen Melzer who surprised Volandri in the final last year with an impressive straight sets victory to claim his first ATP title, comes in as the fourth seed behind another Italian Potito Starace. The Austrian lefty would dearly love to successfully defend his title here, but he has a devilish draw with Gstaad finalist Andreas Seppi in the opening round, a possible quaterfinal with sixth seeded Gilles Simon or dangerous floater Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. If he survives all that, then Almagro will be waiting to finish him off in the semi-finals!

Igor Andreev, seeded 5, posseses the kind of groundstroke artillery to send the fear of God into the opposition, with his monstrous forehand in particular prone to produice carnage on the red stuff. Having made a successful comeback after being sidelined by injury for about a year, the Russian is currently at 38 in the rankings and looking to better his high of 24 achieved in March of last year. Andreev will compete with Volandri or Monfils for a place in the final from the bottom half of the draw.

Opening round matches involving the seeds:

Nicolas Almagro(1) v Simone Bolelli

Fillippo Volandri(2) v Gael Monfils(q)

Potito Starace(3) v Kristof Vliegen

Jurgen Melzer(4) v Andreas Seppi

Igor Andreev(5) v Peter Luczak

Gilles Simon(6) v Guillermo Garcia-Lopez

Fabrice Santoro(7) v Carlos Berlocq

Albert Montanes(8) v Nicolas Devilder

Andre Jones

BNR Stadium

Bucharest