Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the Qatar Open

Get all the latest tennis news from www.TennisNow.com

(January 4, 2011) 

The Qatar ExxonMobil Open, as the first tournament of the year, sets the tone for the rest of the tournament year in tennis. Whoever wins at the tournament gets a head up on the rest of the year and gets a great boost for the upcoming Australian Open.

Day 1 of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha saw Jo-Wilfried Tsonga andNikolay Davydenko  making strong starts. Tsonga beat Spain’s Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-2, 6-0.   Also in singles, the Ukranian Sergiy Bubka beat Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-0, 6-3. 

The defending title holder for this tournament, Davydenko, beat the Italian opponent Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-4. In doubles, Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez beat fellow Spaniard competitors David Marrero and Pere Riba 6-3, 7-5.   Also, the Kuwati Mohamed Al Ghareeb and Qatari Mubarak Zaid go through to the next round after beating the Moroccan Reda Al Amrani and Qatari Abdul Rahman Al Harib 4-6, 7-6(5), 11-9.

Day 2 has already brought with it the news that Roger Federer has defeated Thomas Schoorel 7-6, 6-3. The win was an easy one for Federer, who soundly defeated the qualifier. Nadal is slated to play Karol Beck later today.

Get all the latest tennis news from www.TennisNow.com