It was only late November when the men’s tour wrapped up the year, and already, into the new year, 2010, we’re only 2 weeks away from the first Slam of the year. Most of the men spent December training. There are maybe 2-3 times during the year to hone your fitness. December is one of them. You can also train shortly after the Australian Open and also shortly after the US Open.
Andy Murray, for instance, usually spends about two weeks in Miami working on his tennis. Last year, Murray won the Capitala World Tennis Championships held in Abu Dhabi beating Nadal and Federer en route. This year, he’s chosen to skip this event and head to the Hopman Cup in Australia.
Though many men complain about the long schedule, they only need to look to this tournament to see why it lasts so long. This tournament is an exhibition. It must be quite a lucrative exhibition because the very best pros show up for this event. This year, both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were at the event. Both got byes. The other four players were: Robin Soderling, Stanislas Wawrinka, David Ferrer, and Nikolay Davydenko. Seems like a nod was given to the top 2 seeds to invite two players from their respective countries.
Despite Davydenko’s year-end win, it was David Ferrer that won 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to meet Rafael Nadal (who had a bye) in the semifinals. Robin Soderling beat Wawrinka, 7-6, 7-6.
In the semifinals, Roger Federer finally lost to Robin Soderling, although remember, this is an exhibition. So it doesn’t count as an official loss. The score was 6-7, 7-6, 6-2. Nadal beat countryman Ferrer, 7-6, 6-3.
In the final, Soderling gave Nadal a bit of a battle, but lost 7-6, 6-4. In the second set, Nadal took an early break, but was immediately broken back. Every serve Soderling had featured break points. The next game at 4-3 down, Soderling had to fight break points to win the game. At 5-4 done, Nadal again had break points and eventually came through. Nadal seemed to move the ball around better than he has, and may be better prepared to defend his AO title than he was back in late November in London.
Three official tour events are played next week: Brisbane, Chennai, and Doha. All three are ATP 250 events which means they probably won’t attract any pros in the top 5.
So vacation time for the men’s is over and the new year in tennis is ready to start.
