On the ATP and WTA tennis calendars, most months have a cohesive throughline. January is the Australian swing. March is the Sunshine Double. June is grass season. But February is different from the rest of the year; there is no one location, no one theme, not even one surface. In the post-Australian Open, pre-Sunshine Double lull, opportunities are everywhere and cohesion is nowhere.
No Rest in the Middle East
Neither tour takes any time to breathe after the Australian Open, but the WTA especially barrels right into the action and doesn’t stop. Taking place immediately after the Australian Open is the Abu Dhabi Open, a 500 that, due to its place on the calendar, draws a fairly weak field. Following Abu Dhabi are the Qatar Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships–two 1000-level tournaments back-to-back. They used to trade 1000 status each year, but recent changes have kept them both at the highest level. Like Abu Dhabi, the draws for these two tournaments are often bare and imbalanced and sometimes end up with unexpected finalists or champions.
The ATP follows the WTA through these venues, playing 500s in Doha and Dubai. For 500s, they tend to attract top players. Doha this year is especially stacked, with Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, and more top players slated to play. Whether the entry list holds remains to be seen, but these 500s tend to have a good turnout.
Early European Indoors
The more “official” indoor European swing comes in October, but that doesn’t stop these types of tournaments from popping up in February. With most of the WTA in the Middle East, the tournaments here are both 250-level: the Ostrava Open and the Transylvania Open, both in the week after the Australian Open. With most players resting or already in the Middle East, there is a lot of opportunity for lower-ranked players to get into these draws.
The ATP also has a 250–the Open Occitanie Montpellier–but the real draw is Rotterdam, a 500 that consistently boasts top-tier talent. The last two champions of the event are Alcaraz and Sinner, and despite withdrawals from Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev this year, the entry list still has three top 10 players. With a long time to go in between Rotterdam and Indian Wells, though, these players have to scatter to some other corner of the world for their next tournament.
The Golden Swing
February, quite randomly, is full of clay. Three ATP tournaments take place in South America, and the draws are full of clay specialists hoping to capitalize on their best surface early in the season. With two 250s (the Argentina Open and the Chile Open) and one 500 (the Rio Open), clay specialists have a chance to pick up points without the rest of the field getting in the way. It’s also an opportunity for South American players to take full advantage of their home crowds, which they don’t get very often.
The Davis Cup Never Ends
With the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup, any slight gap in the schedule is a place to stick ties. For the Davis Cup, the first-round qualifiers take place right after the Australian Open and tend to feature extremely depleted teams. As confusing to follow as ever, the Davis Cup creeps up in this part of the season and just as quickly fades away.
The Crawl to Indian Wells
The Dallas Open and the Delray Beach Open take place concurrently with the Middle East 500s as well as Rotterdam, and the draws tend to be filled with American players wanting to stay close to home before Indian Wells. Nearly a month before the Masters tournament starts, the ATP players who choose this option are starting an early lead-up. Dallas was recently promoted to a 500, but still these draws only feature a handful of top players, with most others chasing points elsewhere. The Mexican Open, a 500, attracts more top players, being closer to Indian Wells, but the tradeoff is heat and humidity so brutal that matches can only be played at night. This part of February is definitely one of the stranger ones, but the road does lead to Palm Springs.
On the WTA side, there are just two tournaments in this part of the world, both of them taking place the week before Indian Wells. Neither are particularly attractive to top players, with the 500-level Mérida Open not having a single Top 10 player and the 250-level ATX Open only having Jessica Pegula. These tournaments, much like the indoor European 250s at the start of the month, present a huge opportunity for lower-ranked players to break through.
Ultimately, tennis in February is the very same quality as all other months, but what it’s missing is something to connect these tournaments, something to build to. Because as it is, February feels like nothing more than a bridge to the next big thing.
Main Photo Credit: Jeff Romance/PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK
