Warriors, Come Out to Play

Recently another tennis writer declared a ban on the use of the word “warrior” to describe an athlete. I have no idea why, but I tried to follow along, I really did, the same way I tried to follow the advice of an unhappy e-mailer who strongly suggested to me that I should never use the word “dogged” to describe David Ferrer again. In both cases I failed—I guess I need a new Thesaurus for 2012.

In my defense, I could see no other way to begin the new tennis season than with the video above, from the 1970s camp New York classic The Warriors. Not only is the sentiment appropriate—as of the second day of the year, tennis’s warriors are already out to play, from Doha to Chennai to Brisbane—but the clip is also a welcome reminder of just how frightening a set of mini beer bottles can be when they’re tapped together correctly. I know what I’m doing before my next match, as my opponent walks onto the court.

Now is the point in the article when I would normally say something snarky about the absurdity of the tennis schedule and its “off-season.” But I’m not going to do that. I’ve declared my own personal ban on that very tired topic, at least until the black hole known as February, when I’ll need all the topics I can get. And I actually enjoyed my own personal one-week off-season. It’s nice, once a year, to have the time to read the paper front to back, to begin to understand a James Merrill poem, to finish an old novel—the excellent Stoner, by John Williams (no, it's not about a pothead)—to watch an old favorite movie, like Laura, to finally catch up on a show like Breaking Bad (thank you to the anonymous reader who sent me the third season), and to find something new, which for me was the IFC comedy Portlandia. Not bad for a week’s worth of non-work.

Technically, we’re still on vacation in the United States. This is college-football-watching day in the USA, and it is, naturally, a federal holiday. But I’ll get to work anyway, with slightly belated previews of the tennis tournaments that are already underway. For the rest of the week I’ll be looking at some key players and themes for the new year. In general, the idea is that I’ll be posting more often in 2012, at somewhat shorter lengths—faster, faster, more, more is the way of the world, after all.

We’ve got more at Tennis.com as well. There’s a new daily feature, First Serve, and a new contributor, Gear Editor Justin DiFeliciantonio. He hails from my alma mater, Swarthmore College, so expect some heavy thinking on the equipment front. I’ll also be on the road soon; I’ll start writing from Melbourne at the end of next week. So let’s get started, and see which warriors have listened to the scary man with the beer bottles and come out to play.

Qatar ExxonMobil Open
Doha, Qatar
Plexicushion
$1,024,000; 250 points
Draw is here

It’s just a 250, but this is Doha, so whatever the event lacks in ranking points, it makes up for in up-front cash. Enough to get both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to begin their Australian Open preparation at the tournament, which features the same medium-slow Plexicushion surface that will be used Down Under.

Nadal is the top seed, but he comes in with a few question marks hanging over him. He says he hasn’t had the amount of practice he’d like, and he’s added some weight to his racquet in order to, in his words, “have more winners” (makes sense to me; I tried his frame this summer and was surprised at how light it was). Nadal is trying to tweak his game in order to regain control of the rallies when he faces Novak Djokovic. We’ll see what else Rafa might have in store with his game this week, and how any changes will affect him early on. Nadal starts with Philipp Kohlschreiber on Tuesday; also on his side of the draw are Monfils, Youzhny, and Troicki.

On the other side, Federer comes in as the defending champ. Like last year, he's also bringing some momentum with him from the previous season. He won his last three tournaments of 2011, and beat Nadal badly in the World Tour Final in London. Federer will begin with the man he defeated in last year’s Doha final, Nikolay Davydenko; other seeds on his side include Andreas Seppi and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. After all of their face-offs in 2011, there really should be a draw-maker’s law that says Federer and Tsonga need to be kept as far from each other as possible.

Brisbane International (ATP)
Brisbane, Australia
Hard courts
$434,250; 250 points
Draw is here

Doha has the big names, but Brisbane has a solid all-around men’s draw as well. Murray, Baghdatis, Nishikori, Dolgopolov, Tomic, Melzer, and Simon are the bold-faced names. Among the non-bold, there's a local boy named James Duckworth, who won his first round and will now face Simon. There we have my favorite new name of the season so far: Duckworth. Why do I get the feeling I might not be hearing it all that often in the future? Can a Wimbledon winner really be named Duckworth these days?

Murray, as you probably know, has made the biggest headlines of the off-week by hiring Ivan Lendl as his coach. I’ll have more on this pairing, and on Murray in general, tomorrow, but I think just having someone of Lendl’s stature in the stands watching him will heighten the Scot’s expectations for himself. That’s what happened when Andy Roddick brought on Jimmy Connors in 2006, and it yielded results very quickly.

Aircel Chennia Open 2012
Chennai, India
Hard courts
$398,250; 250 points
Draw is here

Because two ATP tournaments over the first week of 2012 just isn’t enough, the men are also in Chennai. Tipsarevic, Wawrinka, Dodig, Raonic, and Almagro are the headliners. Two things I’ll be curious to see: (1) Can Tipsarevic extend his late-2011 momentum? (2) How will Raonic begin this year? He came out of the gates like gangbusters last season.

Brisbane International (WTA)
Brisbane, Australia
Hard courts
$655,000; Premier
Draw is here

The top women aren’t wasting any time getting back out there. Sam Stosur is the No. 1 seed, but that hasn’t earned her any breaks in the draw. Both Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters are in her half.

Questions of interest:

Will winning the U.S. Open give Stosur the confidence to survive the home-country pressure in Oz? She hasn't faced up to it well in the past.

What’s in store for the ever-thinner, ever-up-and-down Ana Ivanovic?

Does her Serbian countrywoman, Jelena Jankovic, who changed coaches this winter, have anything left?

How will the most-likely-to-succeed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova kick off what could be a breakthrough year?

What kind of motivation will Clijsters, who has said this will be her last year on tour, be able to muster up?

Finally, what kind of motivation will Serena, who said after her first-round win today that she doesn’t love tennis, never loved sports, and doesn’t like physical work in general, be able to muster in the coming months?

From my own perspective, as someone who long ago stopped worrying about what Serena Williams says to the press, I have to say that I liked this comment. Coming out of my own vacation and going back to my own grind in front of this computer, I can relate.