It is the first Masters 1000 tournament of the season. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will be prominent. However, the world number three Novak Djokovic is relishing the golden era of his tennis career when he is yet to lose a match this season.
The reigning Australian Open and Dubai champion is the overwhelming favorite to triumph in this big event too.
World number one, Rafael Nadal – the Spanish matador – is fresh off his injury and would be raring to be back to his winning ways.
Sixteen times Grand Slam champion Roger Federer will have confidence from winning in Dubai.
Can he be ever written off? After losing past three matches to Novak Djokovic, he is suddenly on the verge of losing his No. 2 ranking to the Serb.
Either of the three conditions would be sufficient for the Serb to knock Federer off No.2 in the South African Airways ranking after the tournament gets over:
1) Novak wins the tournament and he would be the new No.2
2) Djokovic reaches the final and Federer fails to do the same.
3) Djokovic reaches the semis and Federer falters before the quarters.
To regain the number one ranking is, among others, one of the goals for the Swiss maestro this year. And with Djokovic ready to pounce on the No.2 ranking , each loss would distance the champion from his set goal.
It’s no secret that the invincible aura or the golden era, whatever you call, it has come to an end.
Even the tagged “arrogant” Federer would admit it. But he is just 30 and even he feels he has a couple of Slams left in him before he calls it a day. He has definitely got the motivation to turn the tables on the Serb forgetting his recent losses but this is tennis, a sport.
When you start faltering, you end up on the wrong side of the matches, on the wrong side of the rankings. To bounce back is easier said than done. And this is where Federer has got a point to prove as why is termed as a “champion”, “a man still feared on the tour”, and of course not to forget, a “16 times Grand Slam holder” (way ahead of his rivals on the tour).
Federer needs to up his ante with each match, with each tournament not to earn points but to remind the rest of the field that Roger Federer is the still the force to reckon with when it comes to big events.
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