The first titles of the 2016 season have been won at the end of a week in which some doubt has been cast over some of the world’s top players ahead of the Australian Open.

In Auckland, former world number one Sloane Stephens captured her second career title at the expense of Julia Goerges, Agnieszka Radwanska won in Shenzhen defeating Alison Riske and Victoria Azarenka ended a long title drought by winning in Brisbane for the second time.

In the west, a 17-year title drought was broken as Australia Green, led by Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova, dominated Ukraine in the final, while there were mixed fortunes for Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in Doha and Brisbane respectively.

Here is a summary of how some of the world’s top players started their seasons as the countdown to the Australian Open continues.

Sloane Stephens wins second career title in Auckland
Former Australian Open semi-finalist Sloane Stephens was the first player to break through for a title in 2016, capturing her second career title in Auckland on Saturday to compliment the maiden title she won in Washington last year.

Stephens defeated Julia Goerges, who was contesting her first WTA final since 2012, in straight sets, but not before she had to complete her semi-final match against Caroline Wozniacki after it was suspended on Friday due to poor weather.

Wozniacki had emerged as the hot favourite to win in New Zealand following the first round departures of past champions Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic, which left the Dane as the highest ranked player left in the draw. She had romped through her first three matches enduring little trouble in the process.

But she would prove no match for Stephens, who split from coach Nick Saviano just before the new year following a year in which she defeated Venus Williams at the French Open and won her first career title in Washington.

And now, winning title number two in Auckland will boost the American’s ranking (currently 30th) ahead of the Australian Open, where she will be kept away from some of the big names until at least the third round.

Radwanska captures Shenzhen
Agnieszka Radwanska has picked up where she left off at the end of last year, defeating Alison Riske in straight sets to win the Shenzhen Open and secure a fourth seeding for the Australian Open at the expense of Maria Sharapova.

The Pole finished last year in red hot form, capturing three titles after the US Open: Tokyo, Tianjin and the WTA Finals in Singapore. This came after an ill-fated stint with Martina Navratilova as coach, during which she lost in the first round of the French Open and dropped out of the top ten.

But there is every indication that 2016 could be her breakthrough year if her form since last September is anything to go by. Radwanska has previously been ranked as high as world number two but has been exposed as a pretender at major tournaments in recent years.

That is something the Pole will aim to fix at Melbourne Park, where she reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final in 2008 and was also a semi-finalist in 2014, when she was stunned by a rampant Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets.

So, could 2016 be Agnieszka Radwanska’s year? She and her fans would have to hope so.

Australia Green win Hopman Cup
Fielding two teams for the first time in their latest attempt to end a 17-year Hopman Cup drought may have worked wonders for Australia, with Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova capturing the nation’s first title since 1999 with a dominant victory over Ukraine in the final.

Gavrilova, who earned Australian citizenship towards the end of last year, kicked things off with a straight-sets victory over Elina Svitolina. After taking the opening set 6-4, she had to fight her way back from 1-6 down in the second set tiebreaker to seal the match, leaving Kyrgios with the job of icing the tie for Australia.

The 20-year-old, who insists he has matured in the past twelve months despite some controversies suggesting otherwise, did just that by defeating Alexandr Dolgopolov, also in straight sets, to win the tie for the host nation 2-0.

It capped off an impressive week for the younger of the two Australian teams (Australia Gold were led by veterans Jarmila Wolfe and Lleyton Hewitt), with Kyrgios going undefeated in both singles and doubles. Gavrilova, on the other hand, was only able to win one singles match, against Sabine Lisicki last Sunday.

It will now remain to be seen as to how Kyrgios fares at the Australian Open, where if rankings hold sway he could bump into any of the top eight seeds in the third round. With quarter-final rankings points to defend from 2015, the Canberran risks a huge rankings drop with an early loss at Melbourne Park.

Gavrilova, on the other hand, will be out to continue her climb up the rankings, having been named the WTA’s Newcomer of the Year after claiming the scalps of Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic in Miami and Rome last year respectively.

If she continues to do well, there is every chance she could be seeded at the French Open in May, and it will mean avoiding the big names until at least the third round.

Azarenka ends title drought in Brisbane
Former world number one Victoria Azarenka arrived Down Under with little expectations, but they may have suddenly increased after the Belarussian ended a 17-month title drought by winning in Brisbane for the second time.

Since defeating Serena Williams to win Cincinnati in 2013, the two-time Australian Open champion had endured a horrid period with injuries and inconsistency, and at one stage got very close to dropping out of the world’s top 50.

It was then Azarenka hired Simona Halep’s former coach, Wim Fissette, and while her comeback since that appointment has been slow, it has now got to the point where she will re-enter the world’s top 20 ahead of next week’s Australian Open.

Despite her lowly ranking of 22nd entering the tournament, Azarenka became the favourite after Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova were forced to withdraw before their first matches due to injury, in addition to second seed Garbine Muguruza retiring in her first match due to a foot injury.

And the 26-year-old justified her favouritism tag, matching Serena Williams’ 2013 record in dropping just 17 games en route to her second Brisbane title, seven years after capturing her very first WTA title in the tournament’s inaugural edition in 2009.

Her victim in the final was Germany’s Angelique Kerber, whom the Belarussian defeated in one of the matches of the year at the US Open last September. The form shown by Azarenka this week will serve as a warning that the form that took her to world number one in 2012 is set to be revived at Melbourne Park.

Azarenka is, of course, a two-time champion there, defeating Maria Sharapova and Li Na to win her titles in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Thus, she could emerge as the biggest threat to Serena Williams successfully retaining the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy later this month.

However, the current rankings, when updated this morning, could have the two lined up for a potential fourth round showdown. This emerged as the case at last year’s French Open, when the two met in the third round with Williams winning.

Djokovic dominates Nadal in Doha
World number one Novak Djokovic has picked up where he left off from his dominant 2015 season, thrashing Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-2 to capture the title in Doha and thus inflict his heaviest ever defeat on the Spaniard in the process.

In addition, Djokovic took the lead for the first time in their head-to-head, edging ahead 24-23 in their 47-match series, and sent a warning to the rest of the ATP ahead of the Australian Open where he will seek a record sixth title.

The 28-year-old has now reached the championship match in every tournament he has played in the last twelve months, last failing to get this far in Doha last year when he lost to Ivo Karlovic in the quarter-finals.

Given the form he showed in Doha, it will be hard seeing anyone dethrone the Djoker at Melbourne Park towards the end of this month. However, Nadal is expected to be one of the many contenders to the crown despite his recent unhappy history Down Under since capturing the title in 2009.

Raonic upsets Federer in Brisbane
And last night, Roger Federer failed in his bid to successfully defend his Brisbane crown, losing in the final to Canadian Milos Raonic in a rematch of last year’s final.

There were doubts over Federer’s fitness entering the tournament, but he didn’t appear to be deterred when he defeated Tobias Kamke and Dominic Thiem in straight sets on either side of a three-set quarter-final win against Grigor Dimitrov.

However, he was to be no match for Raonic, who was intent on gaining revenge for last year’s championship match defeat, in which he was the victim as Federer recorded his 1,000th ATP match victory.

A break in each set was enough for the Canadian as he won 6-4, 6-4 to record just his second victory against Federer, the other coming at the Paris Masters in 2014. Raonic is expected to be among the many contenders for the Australian Open, where he was a quarter-finalist last year.

Federer, meanwhile, will be expected to contend again even with a new coach in Ivan Ljubicic in his corner. The Swiss Maestro reached the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open towards the end of last year, but lost both times to Novak Djokovic.

The 34-year-old will be hoping that the change in his coaching panel will help him to capture not just that elusive 18th Grand Slam title, but also the Olympic singles gold medal, which he came close to winning in 2012 but was dealt a straight-sets humiliation at the hands of Andy Murray on the grass courts of Wimbledon.

In other tennis news, the world’s top four women (namely Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza and Maria Sharapova) are all carrying injury concerns ahead of the Australian Open which starts next Monday.

Williams had to retire from her singles match against Jarmila Wolfe at the Hopman Cup in Perth due to a knee inflammation. It was her first competitive match since her shock US Open semi-final loss to Roberta Vinci last September, which thwarted her bid to complete the Calendar Grand Slam.

As mentioned above, Halep and Sharapova both withdrew from Brisbane without hitting a ball in anger, while Muguruza retired from her first match against Varvara Lepchenko due to a foot injury.

And the Sydney International lost defending champion Petra Kvitova (illness), as well as 2013 champion Agnieszka Radwanska (fatigue) and former world number one Ana Ivanovic (a first round loser to Karolina Pliskova) on its first day.

Samantha Stosur and Brisbane runner-up Angelique Kerber are in action against Roberta Vinci and Elina Svitolina respectively in Sydney today, while in the men’s draw John Millman is up against Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo, against whom he holds a 3-0 career record against.

Exhibitions aside, the only other tournament taking place this week is the Hobart International, where Auckland champion Sloane Stephens is the top seed and Heather Watson the defending champion.