Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are eyeing a confidence-boosting victory at the season-opening Qatar Open but much of the talk Monday was swirling around Novak Djokovic who is not here but is already showing signs of the dominance that made him such a force in 2011. The No. 1-ranked Djokovic wrapped up his first title in Abu Dhabi on Saturday and afterward stated that he was feeling better than he did at this time last season. That does not bode well for the second-ranked Nadal and third-ranked Federer who were often on the losing end as the 24-year-old Serb won three Grand Slams on his way to amassing a record of 70 wins and six losses. Nadal, who lost to Djokovic in the US Open and Wimbledon finals in 2011, said players expect the Serb to dominate again this season. "Everybody thinks that Djokovic will be difficult to beat, no?" Nadal said. "Not just myself." The 25-year-old Spaniard, who is the tournament s top seed, has a first-round match Tuesday against Philipp Kohlschreiber while Federer faces a tricky encounter against Nikolay Davydenko of Russia whom he beat in the final last year. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France plays Malek Jaziri of Tunisia while Gael Monfils faces Rui Machado of Portugal. Federer, too, couldn t avoid questions about Djokovic, who beat the Swiss in the Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament last week. He lost to Djokovic in the Australian Open and US Open but exacted some revenge in ending Djokovic s 43-match winning streak at the French Open semifinals. "He was definitely the most consistent player of this last year, and he looks like he s in good shape again for this upcoming season," Federer said. Federer said his strong finish last season a 17-match winning streak that culminated in a record sixth title at the year-end championships in London has given him hope that he can do well this year. Early in the first round Monday, there were no upsets as the seeded players all advanced. Fifth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia, beat Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-6 (4) while sixth-seeded Alex Bogomolov Jr. of Russia came from a set down to beat Filippo Volandri of Italy 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. Eighth-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy beat Lukasz Kubot of Poland, 6-2, 6-3.
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