If you ever wondered why the European players take their time getting to the US Open Series hard court tournaments, here are two reasons: last week Stuttgart paid over $131,000 to the winner and this week Kitzbuhel will pay over $139,000 to its winner. Both are clay court tournaments as is the other European tournament this week, Umag, which will pay out a paltry $49,039.

The second event in the Open Series is in Los Angeles this week and will pay $74,197.

It’s awfully nice of England’s tennis association to pay Gilbert but it also adds that much more pressure to the youngster because England is putting all of its hopes on his bony shoulders.

Kitzbuhel is like Stuttgart last week, it pays a lot of money but there are few sure winners. Robredo is the surest player, I have him winning, and that presents a problem because I’ve already picked him five times (ATP fantasy rules allow you to pick a player a maximum of five times in a season). At the beginning of next season, if you’re not tired of this fantasy stuff already, it would be a good idea to sit down with the list of tournaments and count up the the number of clay court tournaments so you don’t run out of players.

Davydenko could get to the final but he could also lose to Lapentti and Gaudio could lose to Monaco. People are discouraged by Gaudio because he’s undependable, but it makes sense to pick four players for Kitzbuhel and Gaudio is one of them. That means picking Robredo, Gaudio, Davydenko and Nieminen while I will go with Massu and hope he beat Gaudio.

Los Angeles has a lot of interesting stories. Roddick has decided to kick butt this summer and play every tournament in sight so he’s accepted a wild card. It’ll be interesting to see how far Agassi can go. I have him losing to Gonzalez in the third round because Agassi is not mobile enough to keep up with today’s hard court players. You can see him stiffen up as he plays.

If Brad Gilbert joins Andy Murray this week in Los Angeles, and why shouldn’t he, it either helps Murray or it becomes another situation where a country puts too much pressure on its players. It’s awfully nice of England’s tennis association to pay Gilbert but it also adds that much more pressure to the youngster because England is putting all of its hopes on his bony shoulders.

I have Roddick meeting Hewitt in the final. In any other year, this would have been another opportunity to see if Roddick has finally figured out how to keep Hewitt from outpsyching him but Roddick has been sliding and Hewitt has only played thirty-six matches this year. Go ahead and use Roddick and Hewitt if you like but I still think Roddick can get you some money in the remaining Masters Series events and, possibly, the US Open. Another choice here would be Gonzalez.

Umag has an interesting money player. Evegeny Korolev is 15-5 on clay this year and could easily beat Coria. I have Ramirez-Hidalgo meeting Ferrer in the final but Djokovic could beat Ferrer.

By the way, I picked the winner of all three tournaments last week including Djokovic’s first ATP title. Fat lotta good it did me, though. My cowriter, Pat Davis, picked both finalists at Stuttgart and Indianapolis and did me one better.