Tennis 2012

I have blinked and it's 2012 and the tennis season is starting all over again. Boy oh boy. Suddenly we have the Australian Open to gorge on in just 13 days. The French will be here before we know it, then Wimbledon, and at last the US. I can't believe it's about to happen all over again.


Already there are results to talk about. Djoko has made a very promising start to the year after crushing The Fed and Ferrer to win the Abu Dhabi exhibition. Ferrer, in his turn, defeated Nadal. Will Djokovic be able to live up to the exceptional standard he set last year? Will Nadal bounce back from a whole host of defeats against the unflappable Serb to win more than just the French this year? Will Federer pick up his first slam since 2010 on the back of his brilliant triumph against Tsonga at the World Tour Finals in November? Will Murray win his first major? Will one of the others do the impossible and take a slam from the top four? 


And on the women's tour will Serena bounce back from a tough couple of years? Will this be the year that the Williams sisters retire (possibly after the Olympics)? Will we see a more dominant player emerge or will there be four different women winning the slams again? Will any British women make roads into the bigger tournaments? 


We shall see.


Murray has finally appointed a full-time coach and it is to be one Ivan Lendl. He hopes Lendl can help him 'mentally' with certain things. Although Lendl has never coached before and has kept a low profile since his retirement in 1994, he is certainly qualified to help Murray. He lost his first four grand slam finals before going on to win eight major singles titles and hold the number one spot for 270 weeks. Lets hope whatever clicked for Lendl can click for Murray and 2012 can be the start of something great for the young Scot.


Murray is through a tough opener at his first tournament of the year, the Brisbane International, coming through against Mikhail Kukushkin, 5-7 6-3 6-2. 


Bring on the next few weeks and the first major of the year.


I'll keep you blogged...