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.

At just 17 years of age, Alex de Minaur defied nerves and overcame the pressure of making his ATP World Tour qualifying debut, successfully booking his spot in the main draw at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp on Sunday.

In front of the home fans, the Sydney native was not rattled, even after dropping the first set against #NextGen star Frances Tiafoe, rallying for a 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 victory in two hours and 19 minutes. It was the latest of a slew of impressive victories for the rising talent, having won three straight meetings with players ranked inside the Top 150 of the Emirates ATP Rankings. He opened his qualifying campaign in Brisbane with a straight-set win over World No. 89 Mikhail Kukushkin.

De Minaur was left speechless.

“I’m playing really good tennis, and at the moment I couldn’t feel any better,” the teen exclaimed. “It’s unbelievable. Such a tough match, especially how hot it is outside. I’m really happy to get off the court with a win. At the end of the day, the first set was tough, so I knew hopefully I was going to get some chances in the second. I just made a big effort to stay in that match at all points and ended up getting my opportunity and I took it.”

De Minaur will hope his junior success, having ascended to No. 2 in the world, translates to a fruitful career on the ATP World Tour. The World No. 348 has already begun plotting his assault on the Emirates ATP Rankings, soaring nearly 200 spots with a run to the final at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Eckental, Germany in November. It was just his third Challenger main draw.

The Aussie teen has the attention of his peers and even former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, who was in attendance for his Brisbane qualifying win on Sunday.

“It’s been good,” said Hewitt. “I’ve done a lot of work over the summer with Alex. He’s a great young kid. A 17-year-old playing a young 18-year-old American, it was pretty good tennis out there. Three extremely tough sets in really tough conditions.

“I’m happy for Alex. He gets an opportunity now to play in a main draw of an ATP World Tour event. What a way to start the new year. He has a lot of ability, he wants to work hard and puts in a lot of hard hours. The training that he’s done in November and December, coming in here, that’s the main reason he was able to win today and he was able to back it up from yesterday.”

De Minaur’s roots extend throughout the world. The 17 year old was born in Sydney, has a Spanish mother and a Uruguayan father, and speaks English, French and Spanish. Having lived in Alicante, Spain, until he was five, his family moved to Australia for his father’s restaurant business. There, with the support of Tennis Australia, he began looking towards a career in pro tennis.

Now, into his first ATP World Tour main draw, he is relishing the opportunity and is excited to have the support of Hewitt. The two worked together during the teenager’s offseason training block in Australia.

“So many times he’s come back from tough matches,” De Minuar added. “I’m happy I could do that today in the heat, especially having him out there. It means a lot.”

De Minaur opens his Brisbane main draw campaign against 29-year-old Mischa Zverev, with a potential second round clash against fifth seed Rafael Nadal looming large.