Historically, Doha has attracted a fairly strong field. In 2010 and in 2009, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played. Andy Murray won in 2009 and 2008. Nikolay Davydenko is perhaps the most regular participant in this event that’s so far away from Australia. Last year, Andy Murray opted not to defend his title at Doha. Although the daytime weather in Doha can be warm, the matches are played in the evenings to avoid the heat, and evenings can be quite cool in Doha.
Murray wanted to play matches in heat, and so he opted to play in the Hopman Cup, held in Perth, Australia, at the start of the year. The Hopman Cup is something of an exhibition, featuring 8 invited teams with one male and one female player. The team plays three matches, one men’s singles, one women’s singles, and a mixed doubles. It’s often the case that one player is much weaker, rankings-wise, than the other.
When Murray decided to play the Hopman Cup for the first time, he joined up-and-coming Brit, Laura Robson. They made it all the way to the finals where the duo lost to the Spanish team consisting of Tommy Robredo and Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez. Oddly enough, Murray lost to Robredo (up to that point, he had won all of his singles matches) and Robson won her singles (she had, up to that point, lost all of her singles matches). The duo lost the doubles, but Murray felt prepared to play the Australian Open, and made the finals that year.
This year, he’s decided to play the Hopman Cup once again. This event is held starting the first of January and runs for about a week.
Murray was the headliner last year, as the highest ranked male player. He’s now joined by world number 3, Novak Djokovic, who teams up with Ana Ivanovic to represent Serbia upping the level of prestige for this exhibition. Indeed, Spain, the defending champions aren’t even in the 8 invited teams. The US will be represented by John Isner (he’s the defending champ at Auckland, which he’ll play the week after) and Bethanie Mattek-Sands, the highest ranked US woman without the surname, Williams.
Justine Henin will also mark her return playing for Belgium, and Nicolas Mahut will sub in for Gael Monfils and play for France. Defending French Open champ, Francesca Schiavone, teams up with Potito Starace, to represent Italy, and may represent a pretty tough duo. Lleyton Hewitt and Alicia Molik represent Australia.
Meanwhile, Federer and Nadal, as well as defending champ, Nikolay Davydenko, are scheduled to play Doha the first week of the new year in their preparation leading up to the Australian Open.
