Here are the 2012 singles contenders:
- Roger Federer
- Novak Djokovic
- Andy Murray
- David Ferrer
- Tomas Berdych
- Juan Martin del Potro
- Jo Wilfried Tsonga
- Janko Tipsarevic
It sounds like Rafael Nadal should return to the game in late December at the Abu Dhabi exhibition…
The 2012 doubles contenders include:
- Bob and Mike Bryan
- Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor
- Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau
- Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek
- Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen
- Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez
- Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer
- Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopana
Format today and tomorrow includes doubles, singles, doubles, then singles. On day one, Max and Daniel will face Lindstedt and Tecau up first…then Murray vs. Berdych…The Bryans vs. the Spaniards…and Djokovic vs. Tsonga.
As I write this – Mirnyi and Nestor just advanced with a 12-10 third-set win over Lindstedt and Tecau…so they’ll play again on Wednesday.
Last week, the guys played the Paris Indoors (Masters 1000)…well, most except Roger, who took the week to rest-up for the ATP World Tour Finals. Ask a lot of fans, and they’ll tell you most of the top-names in the rest of the field took the week to rest up as well, on the court. Both Nole and Andy Murray were upset early. David Ferrer went on to win his first Masters title 6-4, 6-3 over the hard-serving Polish qualifier Jerzy Janowicz. It’s been a great end of the season for David, winning last week in Valencia, as well. And there’s still plenty of tennis left to play – David will anchor the Spanish Davis Cup Team on the road in Praque, to try and secure Spain’s 4th Davis Cup title in five years.
In doubles, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopana defeated fellow World Tour Final contenders Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer to win the Masters Title.
On a Fed Cup weekend, the ladies also played the Tournament of Champions in Bulgaria…where Nadia Petrova won her 13th career title easily over Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-1. With the win, Nadia moves up to 12th in singles…and with her appearance in the final, Caroline climbs back into the top-10 after a dismal 2012 (remember, she started the year as the #1 player on the WTA Tour).
