Top Players Feature In Season Openers In Doha, Brisbane & Chennai

© Getty ImagesRafael Nadal and Roger Federer will go head-to-head in Doha.

The 2010 ATP World Tour season closed with the 22nd meeting between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the final of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and tennis fans may not have to wait long for the World’s Top 2 players to resume their riveting rivalry. The duo will headline the 32-man draw at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in the first week of the 2011 season, beginning Monday 3 January.

Roger & Rafa: The Rivalry

The tour’s top two hard-court players, as detailed in the FedEx ATP Reliability Index, will be joined in the quality field by defending champion Nikolay Davydenko, who recovered from a bagel first set and saved two match points to overcome Nadal in the gripping 2010 finale. The Russian will be hoping for more inspiration in Doha after struggling through the remainder of 2010 following a wrist injury suffered in February.

World No. 13 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will make his debut at the ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tennis tournament, hoping to be fully fit after the second half of his 2010 campaign was marred by a knee injury.

Buy Tickets: Doha | Brisbane | Chennai

At the Brisbane International, which gets underway a day earlier on Sunday 2 January, defending champion Andy Roddick will hope to signal his Australian Open ambition with another title winning performance in Queensland. Roddick defeated Radek Stepanek in the 2010 final; the Czech also returns to challenge again for the title next week.

DEUCE Extra: Roddick As Hungry As Ever

The 28-year-old American, who has been notably motivated and driven in his off-season preparations, will also face stiff competition from World No. 5 Robin Soderling, who leads the 32-man field, and No. 9 Fernando Verdasco, who has the fourth best record against his fellow Top 10 players over the past 52 weeks in the FedEx ATP Reliability Index. 

World No. 14 Marin Cilic will bid for a hat-trick of titles at the Aircel Chennai Open, one of three ATP World Tour 250 tournaments to be played next week. The Croatian enjoyed a lightening start this season, following his Chennai triumph with an Australian Open semi-final run (l. to Murray) and victory in Zagreb (d. Berrer), and will hope for another emphatic start in 2011.

World No. 6 Tomas Berdych will be one of Cilic’s leading challengers for the Chennai crown as he makes his debut at India’s only ATP World Tour tournament. The 25-year-old Czech is looking to regain the form that took him to the Wimbledon final (l. to Nadal) in July.

This year’s Chennai runner-up Stanislas Wawrinka, a pair of Frenchmen – Richard Gasquet and Jeremy Chardy – and one of Serbia’s Davis Cup heroes, Janko Tipsarevic, also feature in the 16th edition of the tournament, which begins on Monday.

DEUCE: Tipsarevic’s Tightrope