Fresh off his Australian Open title earlier this year, world No. 1 Roger Federer took the court yesterday for the first time since his Jan. 28 victory in Melbourne to compete in the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open and beat Denmark's Kristian Pless in three sets.
The 25-year-old Swiss, who yesterday broke Jimmy Connors' record of 160-consecutive weeks as the world's best male tennis player, enters the tournament as the top seed, though arguably not the clear favorite to take home the hardcourt tournament's hardware this year. The major roadblock in Federer's way is Spanish young gun and world and tournament No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who has remained the lone thorn in Federer's side, posting a winning career record against the Swiss.
A two-time Grand Slam champion, Nadal is 6-3 all-time against Federer, including a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Federer in last year's Dubai finals, which ended Federer's streak of consecutive Dubai Tennis titles at three. But Federer, who has amassed 10 Grand Slam titles over his career, has won the last two meetings, which includes a four-set win to claim the 2006 Wimbledon title. Federer also beat Nadal in straight sets last November at the Tennis Masters Cup semifinals, which is also played on hardcourt.
In addition to defending his Dubai title, Nadal will also hope to end his recent cold streak. He has not won a tournament since the 2006 French Open, where he defeated Federer in four sets. While Federer is consistently considered the favorite to win any tournament he enters, the 20-year old Spaniard will be hungry for a tournament victory, not to mention the $300,000 purse that goes to the tourney's victor.
Although the odds heavily favor either Federer or Nadal to win, the 32-man singles field presents stiff competition in the form of nine other players ranked 20th or higher in the world. Among them is world and tournament No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko. The 25-year-old Russian is a consistent player, having made at least the quarterfinals in all the Grand Slam tournaments save Wimbledon. He has only one singles title on hardcourt in the last four years, however, which came last August at the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament in New Haven, Conn.
While Davydenko is an excellent player, he will need to play the best tennis of his life if he meets Federer in the semifinals at Dubai this year, especially considering the Russian's 0-8 career record against the Swiss.
Rounding out the top eight tournament seeds are world No. 9 Tommy Haas of Germany, No. 12 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, No. 14 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, and No. 15 David Ferrer of Spain, who are seeded fifth through eighth, respectively. No. 7 Tommy Robredo of Spain, the tournament's fourth seed, was a first-round casualty on Monday, falling in straight sets to Fabrice Santoro of France.
On the women's side, top-seeded and world No. 2 Justine Henin of Belgium knocked off second-seeded and world No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo of France to claim the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open title on Saturday, downing Mauresmo in a 6-4, 7-5 straight-set victory. The Belgian's win marked her fourth Dubai Tennis title in the last five years.
Henin survived a second-round scare against Austrian tournament qualifier Tamira Paszek, bouncing back after a first-set loss to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. After breezing through her quarterfinal match, the Belgian found herself in a one-set hole again, this time against third-seeded and world No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova, but Henin rebounded with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 win that propelled her into the finals to face Mauresmo.
The win at Dubai netted Henin her 30th career singles title, five of which are Grand Slam victories including her most recent triumph at the 2006 French Open.
And while the tournament remains many months away, Henin and her fellow female competitors will have an added bonus when they compete at Wimbledon this year. For the first time in the tournament's history, both male and female participants at Wimbledon this year will receive equal prize money amounts for their efforts. The All England Club succumbed to public pressure to make payouts the same for both genders through all rounds of its tournament, widely accepted to be the most prestigious tennis competition in the world.
In 2006, Federer received $1.17 million for his Wimbledon title while Mauresmo pocketed $1.117 million for her tournament victory, a difference of $53,000.
The Australian and U.S. Opens have had equal prize money for years, while the French Open only started paying the men's and women's champions the same amount last year, though the overall purse for competing men in earlier rounds remains larger than the purse on the women's side.
