Tennis Update: Rafael Nadal begins 2011 season in 2010
Worry not tennis fans, world number one Rafael Nadal is not suffering from any head trauma. He is just competing at the Mubadala World Tennis Championships in Abu Dhabi. The event is a set of four exhibition matches, which serve
as warm up session for the regular ATP season, consisting of six players and is starting from the 30th of Dec going on till New Year’s Day.
Although Nadal officially kicks off the regular ATP season next week at Doha, he is competing in the exhibition tournament this week alongside Roger Federer, Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Robin Soderling and Marcos Baghdatis.
Coming off from a superb tennis season in 2010, tennis lovers can expect nothing short of brilliance from the number one Spaniard in 2011.
With the exception of the season opener Australian Open, Nadal ruled at all the Grand Slams for the year. Doing away with two-time finalist Soderling, Nadal clinched his fifth title at the Roland Garros. Defeating local Andy Murray
in the semis and Berdych in the finals, Nadal won his second Wimbledon Championship. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the final match of the 2010 United States Open completing not only his Career Grand Slam, but also becoming the only player since legendary
Andre Agassi to complete a Career Golden Slam.
In addition to a maiden win at Tokyo, Nadal also won three Masters titles in the year at Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid. Nadal also put in a final appearance at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November. Although he failed to
win the trophy at the event owing to his defeat against Federer, Nadal lifted the world number one trophy at the event.
Appearing for the third straight year at the exhibition matches in Abu Dhabi, Nadal hopes to make it to the final once more. Debuting in 2009, Nadal made it to the final losing to Murray. Returning in 2010, Nadal defeated David
Ferrer and Soderling for a win at the event. Ranked world number one at the event, Nadal received an automatic bye into the semi-final where he will play the winner of the match between Tsonga and Soderling.
Following the exhibition match, Nadal will play at the Doha event next week. In 2010, Nadal was a finalist at the event, where he eventually lost to Nikolay Davydenko.
Tags: