Madrid (1st week)

 WTA Madrid; ATP Estoril, Munich

So Madrid starts a bit earlier for the women as it expands into a two week event, and being a WTA 1000 it means nothing else is going on for the WTA this week. Hopefully the draw will appear soon, the official starting date is April 29th. For the men we get two 250s crammed in this week, for them Madrid starts just on Sunday, May 2nd. Everything is on clay, outdoors. Spring is truly here.

Not Madrid, not yet!

 ATP Barcelona, Belgrade; WTA Stuttgart, Istanbul

This week we get a very balanced assortment: Both tours give us a 250 and a 500. All on clay, naturally, but not all outdoors. There were some withdrawals, but overall the top players start showing up. Very probably all venues will be without crowds, which is sad, but Europe is not in a good shape regarding C19, so it's understandable.

Monte Carlo and BJKC and Charleston again

 ATP Monte Carlo; WTA Charleston 2; ITF BJKC playoffs

Here comes the first big one on clay for the men. The Monte Carlo Masters. The women have a Fed Cup Billie Jean King Cup appointment - the World Group playoffs (I think), and Charleston was nice enough to warrant another week there, but this time just a WTA 250. I'm gonna start with the grand!

Onto clay!

 WTA Bogota, Charleston; ATP Cagliari, Marbella

Clay season is here! I know the lads had already that South American thing going, but this is the real deal! The women have it better this week with a WTA 500, while the men go just for ATP 250s. That reflects in the draws too: we get just two top 20 guys showing up this week, while from the women we get nine from the top 20, including the #1. Obviously, I'm gonna start with the ladies.