Tennis News

One of the scintillating rivalries in tennis today will get another chapter in its storied tale, as world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and former world No. 2 Andy Murray cross paths in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championships on Saturday afternoon. This marks the 24th time that these two competitors will meet on the tour, with Djokovic leading the head-to-head series 15-8.

Top seed Novak Djokovic put on an entertaining showing in his first match of 2015. The Serbian star stormed through his encounter against Stan Wawrinka, as he won 10 of 11 games to lead 6-1, 4-0 without even breaking a sweat. He would drop just two more games in the entire match to defeat his rival 6-1, 6-2 and secure his spot in the final against another one of his noted adversaries.

Following his surprisingly close three-set victory over Feliciano Lopez on Thursday afternoon in Abu Dhabi, British No. 1 Andy Murray bludgeoned top-ranked Spaniard Rafael Nadal in straight sets to reach the final of the exhibition tournament in the UAE. The Scot, who barley made any mistakes during the match, saved nine break points to defeat the world No. 3 6-2, 6-0 in a little over an hour of competition.

Yet even though the scoreline suggests a thrashing, Murray believes the match was far more competitive than the score suggests. Nadal was clearly showing signs of rust after his extended absence from the tour with a slew of injuries and few expected him to return in top form.

“It was closer than the score suggests. While he had a lot of break points I won the important ones.”

This marks the 24th time that these two competitors will cross path on the tour, and while this remains an exhibition event, it is clear that both men are keen to lift the title before setting off on their pre-Australian Open warm up events. Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 15-8 and will look to exploit his recent dominance over Murray on Saturday.

Prediction: Novak Djokovic in Three Sets

One of the young American prospects on the WTA tour, Sloane Stephens, has hired Eugenie Bouchard’s former coach Nick Saviano to help guide her through the coming year on the tour.

TENNIS.com, who revealed that Saviano will begin working with the American at Hobart and will be present at the Australian Open, was first to announce the news. They began working with each other in early December.

After reaching her career-high ranking of No. 11 the previous year, 2014 was a mostly forgettable season for Stephens. Since losing in the first round of the Wimbledon Championships to Maria Kirilenko, she began her hard court season with a loss to Christina McHale in Washington, before rebounding with slightly better showings in Montreal and Cincinnati, where she reached the second and third round respectively. She has accumulated a 3-3 record during the US Open Series and then lost her second round match at the US Open to Sweden’s Johanna Larsson.

Much of the trouble in 2014 was due to a wrist injury in the summer portion of the season, and closed out the year with a 21-20 record in singles action.

The youngster will now begin her new season at the ASB Classic in Auckland. She will then join with her new coach the following week in Australia, where she reached the semi-finals in 2013. 23 of the tour’s Top 60 women are expected to compete at this event.