When it came out yesterday that Rafa will be taking on Soderling and not Federer in Abu Dhabi Exhibition Finals, hopes of several fans got dampened, as a Federer-Nadal Final is always the most anticipated of all. But when results of Rafa's finals against Soderling came out, we Rafans had plenty to cheer about.
Rafa made a confident start by beating Robin Soderling 76(3), 75 in the finals of Capitala World Tennis Championships in Abu Dhabi. This win means Rafa was able to avenge his last two tour-level losses to Soderling, one coming at ATP World Tour Finals (London,2009) and the other one, as everyone remembers, at French Open 2009 that ended Rafa's reign at the dirt slam.
And the confidence was evident in his post-match interview :
“This is a very important win for me. probably since Roland Garros last year. I’ve worked very hard and it’s nice to start the season like I did... I hope to continue playing at this level. If I still play at this level, I think I have the chance to do good things.”
Federer managed to finish 3rd at the Exhibition Event with 61, 75 win over another Spaniard, David Ferrer in the 3rd / 4th position play-off.
Rafa now moves on to play another event in the middle-east, an ATP World Tour 250 event in Doha, where his rivalry against Federer and Andy Murray gets re-ignited.
Moving over to the WTA Tour, ASB Classic Doubles draws are out. and as expected, Sania pairs with Spanish Veteran Virginia Ruano-Pascual as a 2nd seeded pair at the event. And they start off against a potentially dangerous pairing of Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova and US Open 2009 Semi-Finalist , Belgian Yanina Wickmayer. After the first round, the draw looks a bit easier, as the only other regular pair in the doubles draw is Top seeds Cara Black / Liezel Huber.
Things don't get started off even on Monday for Sania, as the Monday OOP (Order-of-Play) at the ASB Classic doesn't feature any of her Singles or Doubles Match. So, there is one more day of rest for Sania, and then continous 2 weeks of play including Hobart next week.
This worries me a lot, because Sania mostly overplays herself at the start of the year and then stays off-tour months on with her injuries. She's playing Auckland (ASB Classic) and Hobart before going on for Australian Open, where she's expected to play Mixed Doubles as well with Mahesh Bhupathi and then she also has Fed Cup duties before going for her regular Dubai Open in early mid-Februrary. This is too much of match play. With this pattern of play over the past years at the start off the season, she ends up under-performing at Indian Wells & Miami events in March. And injuries to her in the past years have meant that she kept off court during most of Clay Season. I think one thing that separates top 40 talent form top 25 girls is these very smart choices of tournaments. Sania is currently an excellent top-40 worth a talent, but she must learn to choose tournaments wisely if she ever wants to break in top 20.
and not to forget guys, Sania will also play Pattaya Open before going to Dubai At Pattaya, she reached Finals last year, before losing a close 2-setter to Vera Zvonareva in the finals..this is seriously a lot off playing..She must seriosuly think of either quitting doubles forever or must choose to play the right tournaments. She needs to understand that her body is fragile & more injury prone. I suspect she won't skip doubles as she has Mixed Doubles as an assignment during 2012 London Olympics. SO, ultimately it all boils down to choosing the right tournaments to play and making some smart choices through her career..
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