2009 starts early!

Well, when I saw that the ATP season started next weekend, I failed to notice an exhibition tournament going on this week in Abu Dhabi. It started off pretty tame, with Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko beating James Blake and Andy Roddick, both in straight sets. I didn't see any of either match, but I would give it to Murray over Blake any day, and both of the Americans have the sort of games that would probably be rather shaky after however many weeks off. I'm sure they enjoyed getting their appearence fees, though.

Here's hoping that Roddick is fully recovered from his injury and that he finds his form in 2009. 2008 wasn't a terrible year for him (three titles) but it was his worst since he won the U.S. Open. If he wants to remain a contender into his late 20's and early 30's, he needs to show that he can keep up with the younger generation. That sentiment is even truer for James Blake, who also had a lackluster year and is getting up there in age for a tennis pro. He'll need to make a statement this year.

However, that first round gave way to another Murray-Federer matchup, which you can read about here, and which looks like it was a real stunner. Murray won, 4-6 6-2 7-6 (8-6). It looks like whenever these two get together, there are fireworks. This bodes well for the coming year.

Nadal also toppled Davydenko with little difficulty. It's encouraging to see that he's probably recovered from the injuries that kept him out of the end of the season in 2008. Nadal v. Murray is taking place tomorrow. That will be a very interesting match-up, and even though there are no ranking points on the line, you can bet there's a lot of pride and confidence going in to the big tournaments this season. Also, $250K. So that's not bad, either.

Looking forward to 2009

Even though tennis has the shortest off-season of any major sport, I still found it very hard to get through. I'm looking forward to the start of next year's tennis season, which I'm taking as an opportunity to revive my regular commentary on this blog.

It will be tough for 2009 to compete with 2008, which was definitely the most exciting year since I started paying attention to tennis. Of course, that was only in 2005, but still. Even though Federer's complete and utter dominance dropped by a notch, he still had a year that every other tennis in the world (but one) would have traded for. It will be interesting to see how he does this year.

I'll try to make some predictions for 2009 by the end of this week, and then take a look at the first week's tournaments over the weekend, once the draws are posted. The Qatar Open has Nadal, Federer, Murray, and Roddick (supposedly) so it looks like we're getting this season started with a bang.