2010 Tennis Season Underway!

After a long and lonely off-season, the 2010 tennis season officially begins this week. There are three official tournaments during week one: Brisbane, Chennai, and Doha. Meanwhile, there's the Hopman Cup mixed-doubles event in Perth as well. Not to mention last week, the Capitala World Tennis Championship exhibition took place in Abu Dhabi. The season really starts with a bang, doesn't it? Beginning next week, the entire tour becomes focused in Australia as things build up towards the first major of the year, but for one week, the players remain scattered across the globe.

First of all, looking back at last week's pre-season exhibition in Abu Dhabi, there is one very interesting result. Robin Soderling managed to find a way to beat Roger Federer in the semifinals, after losing twelve consecutive times to the Swiss maestro. While this is undoubtedly a thrilling result for Robin, Roger may have already pocketed his appearance fee and decided to head off to his next tourney. The sad truth is that these exhibition wins often don't make that much difference. Roddick beat Fed at Kooyong in 2007, but then won only six games when they played just a few weeks later at the Aussie Open.

Speaking of Roddick, he's the top seed at the tournament in Brisbane, which features the majority of the American and Australian players, save for Aussie number one Hewitt, who's at the Hopman Cup. The first week of the season is always fascinating, because you get to see how players who were injured at the end of last season have recovered, or whether those who finished the year on a tear can maintain their momentum. Roddick is hoping to have fully recovered from the knee injury which cut his season short. Brisbane also features Mardy Fish, Sam Querrey, and Taylor Dent, all recently injured Americans who hope to start 2009 off well. There are quite a few dangerous floaters in the draw, as well. Look for a more in-depth draw analysis tomorrow.

Moving westward to India, the Chennai tournament will struggle to be as exciting this year as it was in 2009. That was the year that local wildcard Somdev Devvarman made it through the first three rounds, beating Carlos Moya and Ivo Karlovic in the process, only to get a walkover from Rainer Schuettler in the semis. He lost to Marin Cilic in the final, but what a dream run. Devvarman will be hoping to defend as many points as he can, and Cilic will be hoping to have his first successful title defense of his career.

Further west, in the Middle East, where the money still seems to be flowing despite the world's economic downturn, you will find most of the big dogs. Only three of the world's top six players will be in official action this week, but they will all be in Doha. Federer, Nadal, and Davydenko will all be there, and only Davydenko enters with a winning streak. Can the Russian continue his stupendous form from the end of last year? He was injured early last year, so he has no points to defend. If he plays like he did in the closing months of 2009, he could jump up to the top 3 or 4 in the world. Two of the other most interesting storylines of 2010 will get started here, too: will Nadal's body be able to hold up, what with all of his injuries, and will Federer be able to stay as motivated as he has been in the past, considering how he has accomplished everything he could have set out to do?

The other member of the top six who is playing this week is Britain's Andy Murray, who is playing the Hopman Cup with British teenage phenom Laura Robson. She could meet American sensation Melanie Oudin, if the U.S. And Britain make it to the final. Of course, to do that, they'll each have to win their groups. Or maybe they could meet in the semis. I'm the first to admit that I'm not 100% clear on the way that Hopman Cup works. Regardless, there should be some firecracker matches. Watch for Dementieva to start her season in style.