SERBIAN TENNIS STAR NOVAK DJOKOVIC WINS IN DOHA, SIR ANDY MURRAY & RAFA NADAL PLAY TUESDAY

Written by: Staff on 2nd January 2017

SERBIAN TENNIS STAR NOVAK DJOKOVIC WINS IN DOHA, SIR ANDY MURRAY & RAFA NADAL PLAY TUESDAY

epa05636971 Britain's Andy Murray returns the ball to Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland during their singles group stage match at the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 18 November 2016. EPA/HAYOUNG JEON |

Djokovic battles to opening win in Doha, Murray and Nadal begin their 2017 campaigns on Tuesday

By Ricky Dimon

Novak Djokovic kicked off his season with a 7-6(1), 6-3 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff in round one of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Monday. Djokovic recovered from a slow start to advance after one hour and 26 minutes of play. His next match will come against Horacio Zeballos, who saved two match points to outlast Florian Mayer in a third-set tiebreaker.

The second-seeded Serb did not win any one of the first four games against Struff and eventually trailed 5-2 in the opening set. Struff, however, failed to serve things out at both 5-2 and 5-4. Djokovic managed to force a tiebreaker and he was off to the races after dominating it seven points to one.

“It’s first match of the year; you never know how you’re going to start,” the world No. 2 explained. “As well as you have trained in the preparation period and the days prior to the tournament, [it] really is different when it’s competitive play–when you start the official match and the crowd is there. It changes things mentally.

“I was a bit flat on my feet..but I stayed composed because I knew…that I could find the rhythm, start reading his serve better, and that’s what happened. Certainly I can play better, but it’s first match of the year. I know that I can’t be at my top the very first match, but I believe that the process is right.”

Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal will get their 2017 campaigns underway on Tuesday in Doha and Brisbane, respectively.

Murray and Jeremy Chardy will be squaring off for the 10th time in their careers. The head-to-head series stands at 8-1 in favor of Murray, who has taken the last four matches at Chardy’s expense since suffering a straight-set loss five years ago in Cincinnati. They most recently faced each other last spring in Rome, where Murray coasted 6-0, 6-4.

The top-ranked Scot went on to lift the winner’s trophy Rome, just as he did at eight of his last 10 events in 2016–including Wimbledon, the Olympics, and the World Tour Finals. Murray ended the year on a 24-match winning streak. He warmed up for the 2017 season last week in Abu Dhabi, where he lost to David Goffin before beating Milos Raonic for third place. Chardy is coming off a season in which he went 17-21 ATP-level record and dabbled into the Challenger circuit following the U.S. Open. In three Challenger appearances last fall, the Frenchman compiled a 5-3 record with no final appearances.

Rafael Nadal of Spain in action during a practice session at the Brisbane International Tennis Tournament in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 02 January 2017. EPA/DAVE HUNT

Nadal’s bid to bounce back from a difficult 2016 will begin on Tuesday at the Brisbane International. A wrist injury hampered the 14-time Grand Slam champion throughout the second half of last season, a major reason why he is down at ninth in the rankings and in danger of missing out on a top-eight seed at the Australian Open. Although there is no reason to overreact from last week’s Abu Dhabi event, in Nadal’s case he has to be encouraged by winning three matches (over Tomas Berdych, Raonic, and Goffin) and taking the title. It is clear that—at least in terms of health—the Spaniard is ready to go for 2017.

Up first for Nadal is an eighth career meeting with Alexandr Dolgopolov, who trails the head-to-head series 5-2. The Ukrainian pulled off upsets at the 2014 Indian Wells Masters and at Queen’s Club in 2015, having previously been 0-5 lifetime against Nadal. Another surprise, however, does not seem likely. Dolgopolov has not taken the match court since last summer’s U.S. Open because of a back injury and he has not won one since the Washington, D.C.event in mid-July.