It’s always struck me as peculiar how that period just after the year-end championship seems to lead to quicker healing than any other time of the year. Djokovic took 5 weeks off, but still looked flat, bothered by shoulder issues and lost in the semis of Basel, retired in Paris, and didn’t get past the round robin in London.
But Djokovic was ready to play in Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi hosts an 6-man exhibition. Due to when January 1 fell this year (on a Sunday), the exhibition was played in very late December rather than very early January. This is the fourth year the exhibition has been played. Federer and Nadal play it each year. Normally, they get a first round bye, win the semis, and face each other in the finals. Federer has yet to win this event.
This is the first year Djokovic has opted to play this tournament. Perhaps out of respect to Federer and Nadal, Djokovic, the top seed had to play one more round than Federer or Nadal. He beat Monfils in three sets to open up play, then crushed Federer in less than an hour, 62, 61 in the semis, and crushed Ferrer by the same score in the finals. This would suggest, despite being an exhibition, that Djokovic is playing pretty well. It’s one thing to get past Federer easily in one round, but something more that he does it to David Ferrer as well.
And Nadal? He already has announced he would take a rest after the Australian Open. Didn’t he just take a month off? Nadal may be overtraining, and this is like the third year in a row he’s had issues heading into the Australian Open. Even so, it’s difficult to gauge how Nadal will do. He won Abu Dhabi last year, but got sick at Doha, and lost early, but got to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.
Nadal and Federer are scheduled to play Doha on Monday. Neither Nadal nor Federer open with easy opponents. Nadal will play Kohlschreiber and Federer will play last year’s finalist, Nikolay Davydenko, in his opening round.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray is already in Australia and will play in Brisbane for the first time. He is also playing doubles with Marcos Baghdatis.
Murray recently announced that he would team up with Ivan Lendl as his coach. Lendl will travel to all the Slams and to most of the Masters 1000 series. He’s expected to travel about 20 weeks with Murray. Although Lendl has not had prior coaching experience (at the pro level), he has known what it’s like to lose his first few Slams. Up to Lendl, Murray had been working with a hodge podge of folks, which include his friend, Dani Vallverdu, part-time consultant, Darren Cahill, and his mother.
Novak Djokovic does not plan to play again until the Australian Open.
