Abu Dhabi: Some of the leading tennis stars — Kevin Anderson, Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Milos Raonic — have already descended on the capital to take part in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, which starts on the eve of the New Year.
The trio were spotted at the Yas Marina Circuit yesterday getting a feel of the speed.
Despite a hot lap in a Mercedes AMG, Anderson’s focus was immediately brought back to tennis by the scribes.
The World No 12 is making his Middle East debut and is keen to get back into the groove straight away by starting the season well.
“Pre-season training I worked hard on the body and worked on the game as well. Didn’t do too much also, as you don’t want to have any fatigue going into the New Year. I’m really excited to start on a high,” said Anderson, who was pretty pleased with the way his 2015 season ended.
“I made some good improvement definitely last year and I’m very much looking to continue. I gave myself good opportunities last year and this year, I’m looking to put myself in the same position. Hopefully I can capitalise on the opportunities and I’m working hard at it,” added the 29-year-old South African, who made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon in 2015.
The 2016 season is about redemption for Frenchman Tsonga as he missed out on the early part of 2015 due to injuries. He too, is keen to see where he stands at the beginning of the season when he locks horns with David Ferrer on Thursday.
“It is good first to have somebody like Ferrer in front of you to compete at the best level straight away. To be able to play at the best level and compete and see if I have had a good build-up or not will be good,” said Tsonga, who summed up his 2015 season as satisfactory, given the fact that he was trying to regain full fitness.
“I was not in a good position at the beginning of 2015 since I was injured. In March I was still playing with soft balls, so I’m really happy the way I came back to the best level and it has given me a lot of hope for 2016,” said the Frenchman, who also asserted that he still has the hunger to excel at the top level.
Raonic, who tried his hand at a Toyota 86 on the track, was coming out of an injury lay off and was looking at the season-opening tournament to step up his game for the campaign ahead. “I started off 2015 well but for the next nine months was playing with some serious injury, having had a foot surgery before the French Open, then followed by constant back problems. It’s a little bit unfortunate that I hadn’t played a healthy match since March. So now it’s good to be healthy and I feel that my level of tennis has improved in this period. I feel I can make a good push,” said Raonic, who, at No 14 is the lowest ranked player in the six man troupe for this weekend.
Raonic, who plays Anderson on Thursday evening in the Abu Dhabi tournament, has still not found a replacement for coach Ivan Ljubicic, who left to join Roger Federer. However, the 25-year-old is in no hurry to find a replacement and wants to make the most of what Ricardo Piatti, who has been part of his coaching team since 2004, can offer.