This week sees the start of the short but intense grass season. Form is always tricky at this time of year as many players have limited histories on grass. Moreover, the most recent grass games were played this time last year.

Birmingham is an important event because it's the only grass tournament many women will get to play before Wimbledon (Eastbourne's Tier 2 status limits the field while Hertogenbosch doesn't play qualifiers). Thus the 56-women field is larger than the usual 32 for this type of event.

Sharapova is the No. 1 seed and a successful defence of her title will keep her within striking distance of the No. 1 WTA ranking. There is only one other Top 10 player this week in Alicia Molik, a competent grass-courter who is returning from a 4-week absence with an inner ear infection.

Some of the seeds to watch include last year's finalist Tatiana Golovin and Shinobu Asagoe who enjoys the surface. Lisa Raymond, the 2000 champion, is seeded 14.

A few of the outsiders may also play well. These include Daniilidou who, as always, has had a poor clay swing (she won Hertogenbosch in 2002). However she faces a tough first round match against Cho who reached the semi-finals of last week's grass court Surbiton Challenger.

Tanasugarn is another who hates clay but goes ok on grass as does Kristina Brandi who just won the C25 Surbiton Challenger. Both should improve their results over the next few weeks.

Lets hope the bookies get their lines out early - if they can do it for the French Open , they should be able to offer good service each week.