Doha tournament organizers surely didn’t expect this.  When you have Federer and Nadal in the draw, you hope for Federer and Nadal in the final, or at least one or the other.  Federer had to withdraw due to a back issue that had him in danger of missing his match against Seppi.  He worked a lot harder than he wanted and won in three sets, but had to drop out against Tsonga.  Federer says that he just needs a few days to recover and should be fine for the Australian Open.

Don’t fret however.  Instead, the finals will be two of the more exciting players in tennis, two Frenchman: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils.

Monfils has been criticized in the past for being a bit too passive.  He tends to rely on his athleticism to run down lots of balls, but often prefers to make spectacular shots in defense than to take the offense and be aggressive.  In many ways, he is like Nadal.  He doesn’t have the same kind of spin, but he does have great feet and can get lots of balls back.

However, this week in Doha, Monfils has made more effort to be aggressive which includes more forays to the net, and going for bigger shots.  Monfils has played Rafa differently over the years.  Sometimes it’s his more passive play, and occasionally, he tries to go big.  The key to Monfils big shots are his angle two-handed backhand which allows him to get a nice shot even in defense, and his huge down-the-line forehand.  Monfils also has a decently paced serve.

Monfils and Nadal were mostly on serve in the first set with Monfils serving well and chasing down balls.  Monfils eventually had a good aggressive game in the first set to break and held to win the first set.  In the second set, Monfils started having a few more issues and Nadal got an early break.  However, Monfils would eventually come from 40-15 down on Nadal’s serve, get the game to deuce, and get a break.  Nadal seemed a bit out of sorts.  Monfils then broke a second time with more aggressive play.

Final score: 63 64.

Chennai

Although Kei Nishikori is the highest ranked Japanese player, he lost early in Brisbane.  Meanwhile, two other Japanese players were making deep runs in Chennai.   Nicolas Almagro needed three sets to beat Yuichi Sugita 64, 67, 64.  Defending champ, Stan Wawrinka, was not as lucky.  Wawrinka lost in straight sets, 64 64, to Go Soeda.

Meanwhile, Canadian Milos Raonic beat Dudi Sela, 76 63, and is hoping for a good performance once he reaches Australia for a second year in  a row.

Janko Tipsarevic is trying to topple one of the shortest pros on tour in David Goffin.  He took the first set, 62.  Tipsarevic is hoping to follow up an excellent end of 2011 with a good start in 2012.