Djokovic and Monfils clash on Thursday

posted on 29/12/2011: 81 views

Tennis fans in the UAE are all set for a perfect three-day feast to ring out the old year. Newly-crowned world number one Novak Djokovic and former junior world number one Gael Monfils meet in one of the two opening-day matches in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship this evening.

Prior to the debut of Djokovic and Monfils at the Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex in Zayed Sports City, Spain's world number five David Ferrer takes on world number six Wilfried Tsonga in what is expected to give an explosive start to the six-man US$250,000 (Dh918,073) winner-takes-all event.

Completing the line-up are world number two Rafael Nadal and world number three Roger Federer, the two finalists of last year's event, who are seeded directly into tomorrow's semi-finals.

With just a few tickets left for today's and Saturday's matches and with tomorrow's seats sold out, the tennis feast will see fans end their year on a high while the six star players renew old rivalries and test themselves ahead of 2012.

Djokovic has already been in Abu Dhabi for nearly a fortnight as he seeks to build on his amazing success of 2011, when he won three of the four Grand Slams and 10 ATP World Tour titles, including a single-season record five Masters 1000 titles to leap to the top of the world rankings.

Monfils, on the other hand, arrived just before the Mubadala championship and has only just had his first feel of the hard courts here, which are similar to the ones used in the Australian Open next month.

"This is a great start to a new season. I have been working on a few aspects of my game and, though I am taking on Djokovic, I can fearlessly try them out," said the 25-year-old Frenchman, who at 193cms is 5cms taller than Djokovic.

"One of my aims for 2012 is to stay healthy and fit and to try and make it to the top ten," added Monfils, who had briefly risen to world number seven and also made it to the third round at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon. The Frenchman also said he was keen to adopt an aggressive approach

Djokovic announced here in Abu Dhabi a fortnight ago that he was free of injuries and raring to go. "Injuries are past at this moment. I am happy to announce that I have had enough time to recover physically and mentally and to get back into shape," he said.

Mouthwatering

A win against Monfils will set up a mouth-watering clash between Djokovic and Federer in tomorrow's first semi-final. It was Federer who ended Djokovic's 41-match winning streak in 2011 in the semi-finals at Rolland Garros. – Gulf News

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