TENNIS in DEPTH.

2010 is only one week away and the new ATP World Tour season will soon be upon us. As always, the year will get started with what should be an entertaining, revealing, action-packed January.

However, the action really gets started later this month. It’s not an official tournament, just an exhibition, but the Capitala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi once again boasts a star-studded field. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the top two players in the world, have byes to the semifinals of the six-man event. Opening matches on December 31 will pit Robin Soderling against Stanislas Wawrinka and Nikolay Davydenko vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Two days after the Abu Dhabi, the official season will begin in Doha, Chennai, and Brisbane.

Federer and Nadal–not to mention Davydenko and Tsonga, as well–will be right back at in Doha, where Mikhail Youzhny, Viktor Troicki, and Ivo Karlovic will also kick off their 2010 campaigns. So far one wild card has been handed out; to 38-year-old Younes El Aynaoui, who last played in 2008.

Soderling and Wawrinka headline the field in Chennai along with defending champion Marin Cilic. Wild card recipients were Carlos Moya, Rohan Bopanna, and 2009 runner-up Somdev Devvarman.

Others will be looking to get a head start Down Under; among them in Brisbane are Andy Roddick, Gael Monfils, Radek Stepanek, and Marcos Baghdatis.

Most of the top players will take a week off from January 11-17 prior to the Australian Open, so the fields in Auckland and Sydney are not quite as strong. David Nalbandian, who missed most of 2009 due to hip surgery, is expected to have a wild card into Sydney.

Youngsters Nick Lindahl of Australia and Ryan Harrison of the USA have already played their way into the first Grand Slam of the season. Lindahl won Tennis Australia’s wild card playoffs while Harrison emerged victorious in the USTA’s wild card tournament. Lindahl beat Bernard Tomic in the Australian final, but Tomic received a wild card nonetheless. Carsten Ball and under-18 national champion Jason Kubler have also been given wild cards from Tennis Australia.

Andreas Beck, Xavier Malisse, and Mario Ancic are the only three main-draw direct entrants who have already pulled out of the Australian Open; Malisse, of course, against his well. Taking their places are Jan Hajek, Igor Kunitsyn, and Robin Haase.

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