The preparations for the first Grand Slam of the year is under way, and top guns were in action yesterday and today in Australia and Qatar. Djokovic started his year with a surprise defeat to Ernst Gulbis in straight sets (6-4, 6-4). Roddick win easily against Navarro. Blake was upset by Hrbaty in a third-set tie-breaker. And Baghdatis lost in his 2009 debut.

Djokovic’s loss is very surprising, especially after he claimed to be ready to defend his Australian Open title. Things are not going too well for the poor guy, and he is currently the fourth favorite to win the Australian Open behind Nadal, Federer, and Murray.

More guys will be in action today, including Federer and Nadal, so stay tuned.

The new ATP season is finally upon us, and it all started with a bang. Andy Murray crushed James Blake 6-2, 6-2 to set up yet another match against Roger Federer. Andy Roddick also lost (to Davydenko), which means Nadal will get a chance to exact some revenge on the Russian.

I have Nadal vs. Murray for the final. What’s your pick?

As expected, this was an amazing match. Both guys came to play, but Murray was a bit better in returning, and that made the difference. Murray had lots of chances to win it earlier but finally broke through in the 11th game of the third set to break serve and served it out easily to win the match. I can’t wait for a rematch with Nadal!

Update: Nadal could not come through against Gilles Simon and fell 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 to bow out of one of his favorite tournaments. Gilles Simon looked as if he was going to pass out after the 2nd set but he hung on and now faces a fresh Murray in the final. Not looking good for him.

Two intriguing matchups for today. Murray vs. Federer should be very interesting. I personally believe that Murray has a better chance of winning this as it’s a best of 3 sets match. I’ll take Murray in 3. But wouldn’t be surprised if ninja Federer showed up.

Nadal vs. Simon is a mismatch on the paper. Simon gets a lot of balls back, but that won’t work against Nadal and his punishing strokes. It’ll be probably 3 and 4 for Nadal.

What are you picks? Andy or Roger? Rafa or Gilles?

Madrid Masters continued yesterday, and Federer got out of a potentially tricky match with Stepanek unscathed by winning the 2nd set tie-break just when Radek was finding his feet. Federer vs. Tsonga is the match tennis fans wanted to see, and that is going to happen now.

Roddick had no trouble with Robredo as he utterly dominated the spaniard. Djokovic almost lost it to Hanescu though. Hanescu played the match of his life and had Novak on the ropes for about 2 sets before failing to clinch it in the 2nd set tie-break and having to retire in the 3rd set.

Next up is Gasquet vs. Nadal, Murray vs. Cilic, and Del Potro vs. Nalbandian.

Madrid masters officially started today with the No. 1 player in the world in action. Nadal was facing a potentially dangerous opponent in Gulbis and was kept on his heels for 3 sets, but he came through with a late break to wint 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Blake wasn’t that lucky however as he fell to Giles Simon after taking the first set. Blake was on fire in the first set but went away in the last two sets for yet another loss to Giles Simon this year. Blake has had a season to forget this year, and things don’t seem to be getting better any time soon as he now doesn’t control his destiny to Shanghai.

Federer and Djokovic will be in action tomorrow.

It seems we won’t be seeing the top guys in action anytime soon. No offense to Roddick, Ferrer, and other guys, but Federer and Nadal are very careful about their schedules. For Federer much more is on the line as he will need to win the two masters series to have any chance of overtaking Nadal this year. For Nadal, he has a huge lead over Federer, and a decent showing in both Masters Series will lock the year-end No. 1 position for him. But it’s great that these guys are saving themselves for bigger tournaments so we can enjoy seeing these guys in action for a longer period of time.

The new rankings for men’s tennis are out, and for the first time in about 5 years, Nadal is leading the ranking. He is leading it by a whopping 770 points! Nadal has 6700, and Federer has 5930. Djokovic is back at 5105. The interesting fact is the gap between Nadal and Federer is almost the same as the one between Federer and Djokovic. At this rate, I don’t believe Federer has any chance of winning the No. 1 back this year, but he can certainly be caught by Djokovic if he stumbles at the U.S. Open. Nadal has had one of the best years one can have, and he is surely going to challenge big time for the U.S. Open title. So he can push his advantage to more than a 1000 points if he wins the U.S. Open. The question at this point is, who gets Djokovic time time around being that Nadal has gotten him a lot when he was No. 2.

Gonzo was no go today against Nadal as he was dominated from the start pretty much to finish (6-3, 7-6, 6-3). He had two set points against Nadal in the 2nd set, but how many times have we seen Nadal save 2, 5, 10, or 20 breakpoints and set points and come away unscathed. This man simply plays the bigger points better than anybody else in the world. That’s why he is No. 1. That’s why he is golden. Congratulations Rafa.

Nadal has finally done it. He beat Nicholas Lapentti in straight sets and now will assume the No. 1 position on August 18th, the latest. But he might actually do it as soon as Sunday if he beats Djokovic tomorrow.

I like both Nadal and Federer. Both are great players, but it wouldn’t really be fare to Nadal if he did not achieve the No. 1 position. I am sure Djokovic and Federer will push Nadal in the coming year for the spot and the battle will be much closer than the last 4 years, but for now, Nadal is No. 1 and he has a good chance of finishing the year as No. 1.

The more important issue at hand is the Nadal Djokovic match tomorrow. The No. 2 and 1 favorites for the U.S. Open will face each other tomorrow in a match that could determine who will lift the U.S. Open trophy. Nadal has a unique chance of pulling a Grand Slam if he wins the U.S. Open and backs that up in Australia. But hard courts are Djokovic’s court, and unlike Federer I don’t expect Novak to relinquish his title as the best hard court player in the world.

Tennis has never been so exciting in the past 5 years. Congratulations Rafa!