Dubai: It will be not be presumptuous to think of Roger Federer as the favourite to make it a back-to-back affair at Melbourne Park in two weeks’ time as we head into the season-opening Grand Slam from Monday.
Andy Murray is recuperating from hip surgery and he is no longer the same player that he was in 2016. An elbow injury, meanwhile, has plagued former six-time winner Novak Djokovic even though the Serbian has taken a calculated risk in confirming his entry as he starts off against American Donald Young on Tuesday.
World No. 1 Rafael Nadal — Federer’s opponent in final 12 months ago — also seems to be struggling with his knee injury while beginning the year with the barest of preparations.
Federer enjoyed a trophy-laden 2017 while winning Australian Open and Wimbledon for his 18th and 19th Grand Slam crowns and finish second in the ATP World Rankings. Though the year-end resulted in a rather bizarre semi-final loss at the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 in London, the season was a stark contrast to an injury-plagued 2016 when he could have even dropped outside the top-30 had he failed at the season-opening major.
Besides the two Majors, Federer also added three ATP Masters 1000 titles to his haul — Indian Wells, Miami and Shanghai — and finished No. 2 in the rankings with an overall win-loss record of 52-5. In the end, 2017 meant seven titles in all, his most in a season since 2007.
To further assert himself, Federer has already had a rousing start to 2018 by leading Switzerland to their third Hopman Cup triumph last week. The Swiss ace scored his first win over Jack Sock and then fought off a one-set deficit to dispose off Alexander Zverev, making the 20-year-old German complain in zest that he [Federer] needs to take it easy on the youngsters.
Asked for the secret of his success, the 37-year-old has simply stressed that he has found renewed confidence in his game.
Joining Federer at the top of the game is Nadal. Beaten in the final last year, Nadal would be looking at continuing his winning streak following successes at Roland Garros and the season-ending US Open. And while the Spaniard took two of the four majors, the Mallorcan also broke a number of records along a trophy-laden season.
Aside from the defeats to Federer, 2017 has been the year of Nadal. Along with a record 10th French Open and a third US Open, Nadal also won two Masters (Monte Carlo and Madrid) for a 67-11 record and six titles — his most in a season since 2013. At the age of 31, Nadal is the oldest person to finish as year-end No.1. He is also the first over-30 player to finish as year-end No. 1, while also becoming the first player to hold, lose and regain the year-end No. 1 on three occasions.
However, things are going to be a bit different for the world No. 1 this year. For the first time, Nadal will be without his coach and uncle Toni in the players’ box. But the transition under new coach and former world No. 1 Carlos Moya has been near-perfect following the success of 2017.
The focus is now on tennis as Nadal has promised to go at least one better at the season’s first major as he heads into his first round match against Dominican journeyman Victor Estrella Burgos. However, the Spaniard has not played a competitive match since pulling out of London in November as he also missed warm-up events in Abu Dhabi and Brisbane.
It would also be not be fair if we do not consider some of the new kids on the block, including the likes of David Goffin and Alexander Zverev — both likely Grand Slam candidates based on their form. The canny Zverev has shown a lot of improvement and looks fit and healthy. The 6.6-foot German has been knocking at the doors, and at 20, has already risen to No. 3 in the world following his first two Masters 1000 titles last season. And it was Nadal who has tipped the youngster as a prospective world No. 1.
Zverev may well be overshadowed by Goffin. At 5.11ft, the Belgian is not someone everyone has been raving about. However, he has the game to beat even the best — as he has demonstrated in the past.
Most tennis lovers have cheered the year-long revival of Federer and Nadal. These two are not just the best of their era, they are also very popular among the masses. And in 2017, together the two have shown a dominance where their opponents have been left struggling. Nadal won the French Open without dropping a set while the Swiss ace did the same at Wimbledon. Hence, it’s quite likely to talk up the chances of another possible chartbuster final like the one we witnessed exactly 12 months back.
We will have to wait for January 28 to find out who has the last laugh.
