I love the Grand Slams, just like everyone else. But I like the other tournaments on the ATP Tour as well, and I’m not just talking about the Masters Series  – even the International Series Gold (and "fool's gold," if you will) events have a place in my heart as a tennis fan.

All good things must come to an end, they say, and after the huge high the Australian Open provided, I give the ATP Tour credit for not trying to schedule another premier event immediately afterwards like back-to-back Masters Series events. Usually, too much of a good thing isn’t such a good thing. Often, the anticipation and build-up for the next big event makes it that much better when it arrives. On the contrary, it's very tough to get stoked up for AMS Cincinatti when AMS Toronto ended the previous day.

An upcoming project of mine will be to draft a plan for the ATP tournaments, with focus on areas of improvement. I feel there are a great number of inconsistencies in the way the events are structured (which can confuse and irk even the most dedicated fans), and as you can tell from my above remarks, the schedule is about as chaotic as it gets. Nearly everyone within the tennis blogosphere has suggested something to this effect, and while I won't be a pioneer on the subject, I'd like to throw in my two cents.

Stay tuned for this. For now, I would like to hear any suggestions you may have on the topic. Please comment below, as I'd like to get an idea of what the prevailing opinions are on the scheduling of certain events, whether there are viable solutions. I was taught long ago that brainstorming allows for any idea to be discussed, no matter how crazy it may seem. Let's see what you've got.

I mention this because the project's core is similar to another project I have wanted to tackle - an authoritative chronicle of the history of every men's tennis tournament. Sponsors, dates, locations, venues - everything will be accessible in painstaking detail. While I may not approve of the handling and the timing of certain events, I feel that every tournament currently on the ATP schedule should remain.

The main reason is that the schedule, with over 60 events listed, provides fans around the world the opportunity to see the highest level of tennis at some point during the year. This week, the players finally emerge from Australia and quickly disperse to three other continents. What other sport offers this range of accessibility?

As a litmus test to this grand undertaking, I'd like to talk about this week's events on tour, probably in much more detail than anywhere else. I enjoy the researching, which is time consuming, but it yields a much more extensive and thorough tournament capsule. While this won't be a weekly offering, unless it is demanded, I'd like to try it out this week - and additionally, some of the current results will be included as well. Although the upcoming three tournaments are some of the less famous on tour, that fact alone shouldn't relegate them to the ranks of the "unimportant".

Delray Beach International Tennis Championships
The International Tennis Championships were first held in 1993 in Coral Springs, Florida, but moved six years later to Delray Beach, which is in nearby Palm Beach County. Accordingly, the tournament is celebrating its 15th year of existence. Since its inception, the Championships have produced some impressive winners, including Todd Martin (in the inaugural event), Lleyton Hewitt (in 1999), and most recently, defending champion Tommy Haas. That isn't to say that the event's champion has always been so distinguished - see Jason Stoltenberg (a two-time winner), Jan-Michael Gambill (also a double champion) , and Stefan Koubek, to name a few.

It's appropriate that this is the first ATP Tour event to be held in the U.S. each year as Florida is one of the few states that does not grind to an outdoor sporting standstill in winter. The event is also notable because it heralds a string of minor events in the U.S. that lead up to the Indian Wells and the Miami Masters Series tournaments.

The others (in succession) include San Jose, Memphis, and Las Vegas. This event also features the new round-robin scoring system; like the format used in Adelaide. James Blake is the number one seed this year, with the last two champions,  Haas and Xavier Malisse following him respectively in the seedings. The event also features a number of other lesser- known American players, which include Vincent Spadea, Robert Kendrick, Amer Delic and Kevin Kim.

PBZ Zagreb Indoors
It's interesting to note that each of the three events being held on three continents will be played on a different surface. In the capital of Croatia, an indoor carpet will be the canvas for the artistry of defending champion Ivan Ljubicic (who I would feel comfortable betting my life savings on to defend ... if you haven't noticed, Ivan feasts on these smaller tournaments). Marcos Baghdatis and Robin Soderling make up the top three in the seeds list. In early action, fifth-seed Fernando Verdasco fell to Frenchman Marc Gicquel in straight sets.

The event was revived last year after a nine-year hiatus. Zagreb had hosted Challenger events during that time, but not since 1997 has the Croatian capital been recognised as an official Tour stop. Fittingly, the champion in that final event was Croat hero Goran Ivanisevic.

The title sponsor of the event is PBZ (Privredna Banka Zagreb), which is one of the largest and oldest banks in Croatia. The bank signed a three-year deal to support the tournament last year. Croatia hosts one other ATP event, the Croatia Open in Umag. That event is held in late July, and is on outdoor clay - about as vast a difference as can be from the lightning-quick indoor carpet of this week's event.

Movistar Open
This tournament in Vina del Mar, Chile is on red clay. The clay season usually begins after Miami and runs through until Roland Garros, which ends at the beginning of June. But this is really a misnomer as there are clay events throughout the year; indeed, there is a clay-court event in the final week of September, in Palermo, Italy. But this event is the first stop for the dirtballers. 

It's no surprise to see that the draw (another round-robin, to my dismay) is littered with clay-court specialists, including former French Open champion Gaston Gaudio, at number four,  Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo, and even clay-court savant Gustavo Kuerten (he lost his first match with Oscar Hernandez 7-6, 7-6).

The Movistar Open also features one of the shining stars of the tour as its top seed - Fernando Gonzalez, fresh off a flight from Melbourne, returning with a bit more baggage than he left with. Last year's champion, Jose Acususo, will not be defending his title.

In 1992, three tournaments (including this event) previously held in Brazil were suspended by the ATP, but were kept in Latin America. Originally in the Chilean capital of Santiago (from 1993-2000), the tournament moved to Vina del Mar, the fourth largest city in Chile, in 2001. During its time in Santiago, there was no tournament held in 1999, as the ATP Tour underwent a period of rescheduling. It resumed in 2000, with Kuerten winning in front of Santiago fans for the last time, and next year, the tournament moved slighty northwest.

Since in Vina del Mar, there has been an impressive list of champions, including Guillermo Coria,  Gonzalez (in 2002 and 2004), and Gaudio. The title sponsor, Movistar, is a mobile phone operator, which has operations in many Latin American countries. Formerly, the event was called the BellSouth Open by Rosen.

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Do the lesser tournaments score with you - or are the Grand Slams all that matter? Let Sportingo have your comments.