Novak Djokovic lost the first four games and recovered from a 2-5 deficit in the first set on Monday in his 2017 ATP World Tour season opener at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. The World No. 2 and defending champion regained his poise to record a 7-6(1), 6-3 win over Jan-Lennard Struff in one hour and 27 minutes, marking his 14th straight victory against a German opponent.

“It’s first match of the year. You never know how you’re going to start,” said Djokovic. “As well as you have trained in the preparation period and the days prior to the tournament, [it] really is different when it’s competitive play, when you start the official match and the crowd is there.”

“It changes things mentally. I was a bit flat on my feet… But I stayed composed because I knew, I believed that I could find the rhythm, start reading his serve better, and that’s what happened,” added Djokovic. “Certainly I can play better, but it’s first match of the year. I know that I can’t be at my top the very first match, but I believe that the process is right.”

Djokovic, who has an 8-1 record at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament, lost just six of his first service points. Last year, the Serbian became the sixth player who has ranked No. 1 in his career to win the Doha title, joining former coach Boris Becker – who won the inaugural title in 1993. Other No. 1s to lift the trophy have been Stefan Edberg (1994-95), Jim Courier (1997), Marcelo Rios (2001), Roger Federer (2005-06, ’11).

Djokovic will next face Horacio Zeballos, who saved two match points to beat Florian Mayer 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(9).

Fourth seed David Goffin saved 10 of the 12 break points faced to defeat Robin Haase 7-6(4), 6-2. The Belgian awaits the winner of Fernando Verdasco and Vasek Pospisil in the second round.

“It’s never easy when you start the first tournament of the season,” said Goffin. “You can feel the stress a little bit before the match… I’m feeling good mentally, because for me, it’s always been the key to stay fresh mentally. Physically, I know I can play week after week.”

Elsewhere, Dustin Brown knocked out Facundo Bagnis 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-4, Jiri Vesely hit 13 aces to overcome wild card Anil Yuksel 6-2, 6-3 and qualifier Radek Stepanek advanced when his opponent, eighth seed Marcos Baghdatis, retired due to a right ankle injury.

World No. 1 Andy Murray, who is also competing at the 25th edition of the tournament, opened his season with Mariusz Fyrstenberg. But David Marrero and Nenad Zimonjic got the better of the pair 6-2, 6-4 in 59 minutes. Murray will play his first singles match of 2017 against Jeremy Chardy on Tuesday.

Also in doubles, Fourth seeds Dominic Inglot and Florin Mergea advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Karen Khachanov and Andrey Kuznetsov. They next face Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin, who beat Malek Jaziri and Mubarak Shannan Zayid 6-2, 6-3 in 47 minutes.

The ATP World Tour launches a new global marketing campaign today that will showcase its players and tournaments in a powerful new way for the next two seasons.

The campaign, titled “Greatness Within”, will offer a fresh look for the ATP World Tour and its 64 tournaments but will continue to target younger audiences and leverage the tour’s incredible generation of players.

Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “The ATP World Tour showcases the world’s greatest athletes as they battle week in week out for prestigious titles, and the ultimate crown of finishing the season as ATP World No. 1. The ‘Greatness Within’ campaign will reflect that season-long quest, bringing our tournaments and players to life in a new and vibrant way to our growing fan base, as well as providing the Tour with a captivating new visual identity.”

George Ciz, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, said: “The idea behind ‘Greatness Within’ is based on the fact that there is greatness within every player, every tournament and every match on the ATP World Tour and in order to truly succeed, players must dig deep and find it within themselves. The campaign will provide the ATP with a striking new visual identity full of emotion and passion, helping fans to better connect with the ATP World Tour, our players and tournaments.”

The ATP World Tour has been experiencing an unparalleled golden era with the ‘Big Four’ of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray dominating play for years. But a new generation of players is now stepping up and is prepared to challenge.

The “Greatness Within” campaign will highlight the ongoing battles and the inner strength required of every top player in today’s game. The campaign’s signature line will be, “Greatness Within: Every Player, Every Week At Every Tournament”.

The campaign’s look and feel will convey the range of emotions ATP World Tour stars endure on court, using both player imagery and tournament highlights inside the players themselves through a court-like grid system. The players in the campaign will then be set against a stylised city-specific panorama, with bold graphic standing out in print materials.

The marketing campaign was produced for the ATP by the London-based agency The Big Shot and the video components feature the music from THePETEBOX, which he composed bespoke for the ATP. The song, ‘Fly Like Aces’ is available for download on iTunes. All the video, motion graphics and digital assets align with the print materials.

The campaign, which will showcase more than 60 players, will deliver creative assets for the full spectrum of channels and executions, including print, outdoor, TV and digital advertising. It will also provide opening sequences for live TV coverage as well as for the weekly TV show ATP World Tour Uncovered, presented by Peugeot. A plethora of players and tournaments will be featured in the campaign’s visuals, which will be unveiled throughout the season.

Rafael Nadal is eager to commence his 2017 ATP World Tour season against Alexandr Dolgopolov Tuesday night in Brisbane. Such is the strength of the Brisbane International field, which features five Top 10 players, that fifth-seed Nadal does not enjoy the first-round bye afforded to Milos Raonic, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori and Dominic Thiem.

After flying in in the early hours of Monday morning, Nadal had his first practice session under lights Monday evening, watched by hundreds of fans who took every vantage point to get an up-close look at the former World No. 1. This is the first time that the Spaniard will be competing in Australia in the first week of the season.

“For me to be here for the first time, it’s something special,’ Nadal said at an informal news conference and photo op with a koala bear on site Monday afternoon. “I’m looking forward to competing and to see the great centre court that everybody, all the players, say is so special. This year I decided to be here in Australia; I have a good connection with the people here in Australia.

“I like to know different places. It’s true that Doha worked well for me in the past, but here in Brisbane is something that probably will help me to adapt quicker to the Australian conditions that are always a little bit tougher in terms of weather.”

Nadal is seeded to meet defending champion and World No. 3 Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals. But the Mallorcan is not complaining about the luck of the draw. “Nobody has an easy draw here in Brisbane. The draw is so difficult. Great players. There is no one space on the draw that you can say, ‘Okay, this draw is better’.”

“All players in the main draw are tough players. You can see, first round, David Ferrer against Bernard. Tonight, Steve Johnson against Dimitrov. All matches are difficult. You need to be ready for everything if you want to play a tournament like this.”

Dolgopolov has won his past two outings against Nadal, but the lefty leads their career FedEx ATP Head2Head series 5-2. They have not played each other in 18 months.

Eighth seed David Ferrer opened up his 2017 season in style on Monday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp, putting on an impressive performance to dispatch local favourite Bernard Tomic, 6-3, 7-5.

“My goals this year are to be happy with myself and be focused in every tournament that I play, without pressure,” said Ferrer. “All tennis players have pressure, but at this moment of my career, I need to enjoy these types of matches on Centre Court. I am 34 years old, 35 next month, so I hope I will play a little bit longer.”

The World No. 21 will once again have to contend with a pro-Aussie crowd in the second round when he faces wild card Jordan Thompson. The 22-year-old Sydney native, a winner on Sunday over NextGen star and fellow wild card Elias Ymer, is looking to reach his first ATP World Tour quarter-final.

Ferrer stayed on top of Tomic’s serve in the opening set, breaking the Aussie three times and holding the lead throughout. Both players traded routine service holds throughout the second set until the final game of the match, with the Spaniard raising his level to break Tomic and secure victory.

In other first-round matches, Nicolas Mahut came out on top in an all-French battle against Stephane Robert, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Mahut rallied from 1-4 down in the final set to secure the comeback win.

Next up for the Frenchman is the winner between No. 7 seed Grigor Dimitrov and Steve Johnson. Dimitrov leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Mahut 1-0, but they haven’t played in more than four years. The Frenchman leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Johnson 1-0, but hasn’t played the American in more than two years.

It must be nice to end a season and see your career-best ranking next to your name. Hello, Marin Cilic. Hello, No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

The 6’6” Croatian had a breakout season back in 2014, winning the US Open and three ATP World Tour titles while compiling a 54-21 record. This year, he went 49-24 and won two ATP World Tour crowns, including his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati. But in many ways, for Cilic, the past 12 months have been a more impressive body of work than his 2014.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Cilic’s booming first serve identifies it as the centerpiece of his powerful game, with opponents having a near impossible task of breaking him once he gets ahead on the scoreboard.

Consider this: In the past two seasons, Cilic has forged ahead 40/0 on serve 460 times. He won all 460 of those service games. In 2016, he led 40/15 on serve 324 times. He won 323 of them.

When Cilic got ahead by even just one point at the start of his service games, moving the scoreboard to 15/0, his winning percentage in 2016 was 92 per cent (495/539). It was pretty much lights out when he won the next point and got to 30/0 as well. He won a mind-boggling 99 per cent (337/342) of those service games.

Marin Cilic 2016: Ahead In The Point Score When Serving

When facing break point in 2016, Cilic saved a dominant 74 per cent (106/144) of them when he landed his first serve. If he missed his first serve, that win percentage plummeted to about 49 per cent as he saved just 61 of 125 break points behind his second serve.

For Cilic to continue to climb the Emirates ATP Rankings in 2017, a focus point should be simply to make more of his potent first serves. Cilic finished the 2016 season impressively ranked sixth on the ATP Stats LEADERBOARDS Serve Rating, powered by the Infosys Information Platform, but was surprisingly 69^th best on tour in getting his first serve in, at 55.3 per cent.

Cilic collected only 135 points in his first three events of 2016: Brisbane, the Australian Open and Montpellier. That personal-best ranking may be getting even better in the not too distant future.