The circumstances were quite different last year.  Davydenko was coming off a win at the ATP World Tour Finals.  Nadal had not won a title in about half a year, but was playing good aggressive tennis to start the year.  Federer was playing, well, he has lost the US Open to del Potro and lost in the semifinals in the year-end event to Davydenko.  It wasn’t exactly clear how Federer was playing.

This year, Nadal was playing with a flu, and this was stretching out some of his matches longer than usual.  He eventually withered against a steady Davydenko.  Nadal can leave Doha pretty happy, however, as he decided to stay in the doubles and won the finals with his buddy, Marc Lopez, who he has won titles with before, on the rare occasion he plays doubles.

Federer, meanwhile, was the one that had just won the year-end event.  One indication that Federer is playing much better than he has in the past 2 years is his lack of shanking.  He now goes entire matches without shanking the ball, something that had plagued his game.  Some of that may be getting healthy with his back and legs, which is allowing him to get to the ball and hit it the way he wants to hit it.

Federer opened up with a level of aggression that was leading Davydenko flat-footed.  As he had all week, Federer was holding his serve with little effort, being very aggressive on his own serve and very accurate, winning lots of free points or nearly free points on his serve, while Davydenko was working hard staying in his own service games.  After he lost his first service game, Davydenko took over ten minutes fighting off numerous break points to hold to 5-3 down.  Federer, however, just served it out.

In the second set, Federer was again holding with ease and Davydenko was again struggling (except for one easy game) on his own serve.  Finally, at 4-all, Federer showed his magic getting some good shots off awkward spots and eventually secured the break.  He then held to take the second set, 6-4.

In Brisbane, Andy Roddick needed three sets to beat tall Kevin Anderson.  He will face top-seed, Robin Soderling, who beat Radek Stepanek in two close sets.  Soderling said Stepanek was a hard guy for him to play because he mixes up the pace.  Soderling should feel better this year.  Last year, he started off the gate badly with a first round loss in the Australian Open.  This should bode better for his chances to make a good run in Australia.

In a surprise win at Chennai, Stan Wawrinka upset top seed, Tomas Berdych, 6-4, 6-1, in the semis.  He will face Xavier Malisse in the finals who beat Janko Tipsarevic in 3 sets.

In an odd turn of events, Ana Ivanovic said she had an abdominal strain, so Serbia pulled out of the finals of the Hopman Cup.  Tournament organizers put Belgium in the finals against the US (a benefit of the Hopman Cup being an exhibition).  The US won, with Henin beating Mattek-Sands, Isner beating Bemelmans and the duo of Isner-Mattek-Sands winning the mixed doubles).

With this title, Federer has now won Doha three times.  It wasn’t so surprising that he beat Davydenko again.  Although Davydenko has the capability of beating Federer, I don’t think he’s in the same form he was in last year, though certainly, this is the best Davydenko has looked in a few months.  At this point, Nadal is iffy.  Once he gets over his flu, he’ll have to worry about getting in match shape.  Federer looks pretty solid, starting the year off well with a win.  Soderling and Roddick have started off the year well.  It would have been nice for Berdych to have sealed a win to show he was back, but it seems, he’s where he has always been.  Solid, but not ready to break through to the top.

del Potro is expected to play again next week.  It’s hard to believe that he can get close to his form given how long he was off the tour.  It might take six months or longer to get back to peak playing form.  The closest guy I know that was off for a while and played well on return was Sam Querrey who was injured in the Asian swing back in 2009 and didn’t really play until 2010.  He proceeded to reach his highest rank ever, but Querrey is currently a top 20 player while del Potro is more of a top 5 player.  One could imagine del Potro getting back into the top 20 relatively quickly.

The tennis season is back in swing, and Federer, for one, has to feel pretty happy about his start.