2012 ATP Nice Features John Isner, Gilles Simon and Nicolas Almagro

With the 2012 Rome Masters nearly over, there are just two tour events to be played before the start of 2012 French Open.

The Power Horse World Team Cup takes place later this week in Dusseldorf, and the other event is ATP Nice, a 250 series level tournament coming from the French Mediterranean.

The high seeds at ATP Nice are John Isner, Gilles Simon, Nicolas Almagro and Gael Monfils—first through fourth seeds, respectively. They will each enjoy first-round byes at ATP, while Bernard Tomic, Robin Haase, Denis Istomin and Fabio Fognini, the other seeded players in the draw, will play first-round matches. 

Playing a tournament in the week preceding a Grand Slam event could be a mistake, as the favorites on tour prefer to rest and prepare for the French Open fortnight, an event that promises to be grueling for those that make the very latest rounds.

The two players that make the final in Nice could face early round losses in Paris next week, as they promise to be sore and tired at the onset of the 2012 French Open.

As a point to consider, recall that Jarkko Nieminen won the 2012 ATP Sydney event in the week immediately preceding this year's Aussie. While that implied that he was on form and perhaps a good pick to pull off an early round upset in Melbourne, in truth, Nieminen was actually spent.

In his first-round match from Melbourne Park, the Finn retired early against David Nalbandian.

John Isner is a player who some think can do some damage in the French Open draw, although I think he'll do exceptionally well just to make the quarters. At this point, the American is the eighth favorite to win the clay court Grand Slam with some sportsbooks (from bet365: 50/1).

He may very well win ATP Nice, but if he does, it could leave the service giant disadvantaged heading into the French, especially since the big men on tour are more prone to fatigue.

ATP Nice will be running this week, and of the top four seeds, Nicolas Almagro's draw to the semifinals looks the most routine. He is the tournament favorite with the few sportsbooks that have released odds for the event (from BetVictor: 10/3 or +333).