Greg Garber, Senior Writer 9y

Djokovic hopes to dominate in Dubai

Since the Australian Open, the ATP World Tour has contested nine tournaments across the past three weeks -- four in Europe, three in South America and two in the United States.

There were some interesting results: Four teenagers reached the second round in Delray Beach, Stan Wawrinka lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky in France and Rafael Nadal played a quarterfinal match into the early morning hours in Rio de Janeiro.

But on Monday, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships got underway with the best card since Melbourne. Scheduled to play: No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic; No. 2 Roger Federer, who won his opening match; No. 4 Andy Murray; and No. 8 Tomas Berdych.

Here's who's up -- and down -- as we begin to contemplate that rumble in the United Arab Emirates.

Djokovic

No. 1 Novak Djokovic: One of only two top-10 players to take those three weeks off -- well deserved after winning his fifth Australian Open title in eight years.

Federer

No. 2 Roger Federer: The 33-year-old father of four is the other who enjoyed some downtime. He won the title in Brisbane, but was escorted to the door in the third round in Melbourne by Andreas Seppi, raising questions about his ability to seriously challenge in the year's three remaining majors.

Nadal

No. 3 Rafael Nadal: It was 2 a.m. when Rafa found himself trailing Pablo Cuevas in Rio, but he rallied to win one of the latest-ending matches in ATP history 4-6, 7-5, 6-0. The effort cost him, though. He fell to Fabio Fognini a day later, which ended a 12-year, 52-0 run in clay-court final-four matches.

Murray

No. 4 Andy Murray: The Scot played well Down Under, falling to Djokovic in the final, but suffered a quarterfinal loss to Gilles Simon in Rotterdam.

Nishikori

No. 5 Kei Nishikori: Backed up a good quarterfinal showing in Melbourne with the title in Memphis, beating No. 15-ranked Kevin Anderson in the straight-sets final.

Raonic

No. 6 Milos Raonic: Also reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, then bowed out in the semifinals -- to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka -- in Rotterdam. The Canadian fell in a second-round match to Simone Bolelli in France.

Wawrinka

No. 7 Stan Wawrinka: Clearly, The Man enjoys playing early in the season. Last year he won his first major in Australia, now he has an ATP-best 15 wins after taking the title in The Netherlands. Losing to Sergiy Stakhovsky in his third match in Marseille doesn't blemish that achievement.

Berdych

No. 8 Tomas Berdych: A strong start for the Czech, following up a semifinals appearance in Melbourne with a finals berth in Rotterdam, although he lost to Wawrinka after winning the first set.

Isner

No. 19 John Isner: The 6-10 American played in Memphis and Delray Beach, losing to countryman Sam Querrey in the Tennessee quarters and, surprisingly, to Marinko Matosevic in his first match at Delray Beach.

Young

No. 56 Donald Young: Set aside that second-round exit at the Australian Open (Milos Raonic) and The Donald has put together a nice progression in the early season: quarterfinals at Auckland, semifinals in Memphis and finals at Delray Beach.

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