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The new year is just around the corner and that can only mean one thing – the Australian summer of tennis is not too far away either.
This preview will be divided into three parts: in Part I, I covered the Brisbane International, the Hopman Cup and the Shenzhen Open.
Here, in Part II, I will cover the Aircel Chennai Open, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open and the Auckland Open, while Part III will cover the Sydney International, the Hobart International and of course, the Australian Open.
Let’s take a look at some of the events that tennis fans will be treated to as the countdown begins to the start of the Australian Open on January 18.
Aircel Chennai Open
January 4-10
Defending champion: Stan Wawrinka
Drawcards: Stan Wawrinka, Kevin Anderson and Vasek Pospisil.
Defending champion Wawrinka headlines a solid field of participants at the Aircel Chennal Open, where he will hope to win a third consecutive title as he launches a bid for a third Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.
Wawrinka will arrive in Chennai fresh off another solid season which saw him win his second major title at the French Open, at the expense of Novak Djokovic’s desperate bid to complete his career Grand Slam set.
The Swiss is coming off another consistent season which saw him win three other titles, including here in Chennai as well as in Rotterdam and Tokyo.
In the midst of this, however, he was also involved in a massive controversy in Montreal, whereby during a match against Nick Kyrgios, his girlfriend, WTA player Donna Vekic, was the subject of a sledge made by the Australian player whereby it was suggested by Kyrgios that Thanasi Kokkinakis had an affair with her.
That was one of the biggest off-court stories of the 2015 season, and one which would consequently put Kyrgios on probation whereby if he offends again before the end of February, he would be suspended for a month by the ATP.
There will be a few threats to Wawrinka’s crown in Chennai, including second seed Kevin Anderson, Frenchman Benoit Paire and Canadian Vasek Pospisil.
Anderson enters the new season ranked 12th in the world and on the back of a quarter-final run at the US Open, where he defeated Andy Murray and snapped the Brit’s streak of 18 consecutive quarter-finals at Grand Slam level.
Paire is coming off a career-best season in which he won his first career title in Bastad, upset the previous year’s finalist Kei Nishikori at the US Open and finished in the top 20 for the first time.
Pospisil and Spaniards Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Roberto Bautista Agut are also some of the contenders to Wawrinka’s crown to watch out for. One of those three could emerge as a dark horse for the tournament.
Qatar ExxonMobil Open
January 4-10
Defending champion: David Ferrer
Drawcards: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer.
As was the case in 2015, world number one Novak Djokovic will start his season at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, and he will have a couple of challengers trailing him as he continues his bid to win a sixth Australian Open crown in January.
Also joining him in Qatar is career rival Rafael Nadal, former Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych and last year’s champion, David Ferrer, who recently got married during the off-season.
Djokovic will enter 2016 with two goals on his mind: first, the French Open title, which he had the chance to win with Nadal out of the way but was denied by Stan Wawrinka, and secondly, the Olympic gold medal.
But before all that, the Serb will look to get his season off to a winning start after his 2015 got off to a rather false start, whereby he was upset by serving machine Ivo Karlovic in the quarter-finals here in Qatar. That was the only tournament all season in which he failed to reach the championship match.
After enduring his worst year for a very long time, 14-times major champion Rafael Nadal will be keen to prove that he is not yet a spent force, and winning here for the second time would go a long way towards proving just that.
The Spaniard, who won this tournament in 2014, finds himself ranked number five in the world but is the second seed behind Djokovic, meaning a blockbuster final between the two warriors, who contested the most recent of their Grand Slam finals at the 2014 French Open, is a possibility.
Defending champion Ferrer and top ten mainstay Tomas Berdych are also among those to watch out for.
Auckland Open
January 4-9 (women), 11-16 (men)
Defending champions: Jiri Vesely and Venus Williams
Drawcards: David Ferrer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, John Isner, Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic.
For the first time, the ASB Classic in Auckland will be a combined event for the men and women, with Heineken having given up its naming rights to the men’s tournament (which, accordingly, used to be named the Heineken Open).
Former world number ones Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic will headline a strong women’s field while David Ferrer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and John Isner will be among the men to watch.
Williams and Wozniacki both return after contesting the final in 2015; the American kept intact her undefeated record against the Dane after dropping the first set, while Ivanovic returns for the first time since winning the title in 2014.
Wozniacki and Ivanovic are both coming off very disappointing 2015 seasons, the Dane failing to get past the fourth round at any of the four majors and the Serb winning less than 30 matches but did reach the semi-finals at the French Open.
Thus, either will be hoping to get their seasons off to a winning start in Auckland, but standing in their way is seventh-ranked Williams, who enjoyed a massive career resurgence capped off by winning the final title of the 2015 season in Zhuhai and being named the WTA’s Comeback Player of the Year.
The elder of the Williams sisters may turn 36 this coming June but she is showing no signs of slowing down, even though a career-threatening illness threatened to end her career prematurely earlier this decade.
Among the men, David Ferrer will arrive in Auckland having just contested the Qatar ExxonMobil Open previewed above, with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and John Isner among his contenders for the men’s title.
Ferrer will bid for a fifth title and Isner his third, but if there’s a dark horse that could emerge among the men, it’s Tsonga, who endured an injury-ravaged first quarter of 2015 but did defeat Rafael Nadal en route to the Shanghai final, which he then lost to Novak Djokovic, towards the end of the year.
That’s Part II. The third and final part will cover the Sydney and Hobart Internationals, and of course, the big one: the Australian Open starting January 18.
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