Nadal, Federer To Open 2009 Season In Qatar

November 30, 2008 4:19 p.m. EST

Doha, Qatar (AHN) - The top two best players in the world, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, will kick-start their 2009 ATP Tour campaign at the Qatar Open, which begins on January 5.

According to Qatar tennis federation president Nasser al-Kholiafi, current world no. 4 Andy Murray and no. 8 Andy Roddick have also booked tickets to play in the Doha, a hard-court tournament which is one of three season-opening events on the ATP Tour.

Other tournaments on the calendar are the Brisbane International in Australia and the Chennai Open in India.

Nadal is hoping to continue his run at no. 1 following a stellar 2008 campaign where he won the French Open and Wimbledon titles.

The Spaniard also won eight ATP Tour titles and 82 events overall, his most since winning 79 tournaments in 2005.

Nadal also took the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics in August before being plagued with knee injuries that sidelined him in the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup and the Davis Cup finals against Argentina.

Federer, the former no. 1 who lost his ranking in August, won only one Grand Slam in 2008-the U.S. Open-and just four tournaments overall.

The Swiss star came up empty in nine ATP Masters Series events and was 66-15 in all tournaments he played during the year.

Federer settled for the no. 2 ranking after a four-year reign at the top, no thanks to a string of French Open and Wimbledon finals losses to Nadal.