Making predictions in sport is tricky business even during the best of times, but doing so at the beginning of a season can be a particularly nerve-wracking task and often an exercise in futility.
Especially in a cut-throat sport like tennis where packed schedules and big money combine to make a potent mix, there are only a handful of players about whom things can be said with a fair degree of certainty. 
The bigger the players confirmed at a tournament, the higher the chances of getting a prediction right. For instance, it’s a no-brainer to suggest that either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal will win a particular tournament! They will deliver 90% of the time.
But what if you are to choose a winner among players in the middle and lower rungs of the game? The task becomes complicated.
The combined total of Grand Slams won by Federer, Nadal and Djokovic is 55. At the Qatar ExxonMobil Open beginning tomorrow at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, top seed Stainslas Wawrinka is the only player with a major title under his belt – in fact three.
Russian Andrey Rublev, the second seed in Doha, has only won two ATP Tour titles in total, the Umag Open in Croatia in 2017 and then the Kremlin Cup last year, events pretty much in the lower rung of the game.
Jo-Wilfred Tsonga of France, the third seed, has won 17 titles and fourth seed Milos Raonic of Canada just 8.
The combined number of titles won by the top four seeds is just 43, 12 less that the combined total of just Grand Slams won by Federer, Djokovic and Nadal!
The brand-new ATP Cup currently on in Australia has played spoilsport. With the top players representing their countries at the tournament, the Qatar ExxonMobil has to do with the best of the rest available.
Even Wawrinka is here only because Switzerland withdrew from the ATP Cup due to Federer pulling out for family reasons.
Wawrinka has been handed an easy draw in Qatar. The World No 16 has been given a bye in the first round, will take on either France’s Jeremy Chardy or a qualifier in the second round and could run into Raonic in the semi-finals.
At the bottom half of the draw, Rublev will take on either Malek Jaziri of Tunisia or Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan in the second round and could run into fourth seed Tsonga in the semis. None of the top four seeds were present at the draw Saturday, but Doha resident Fernando Verdasco was keen to make the best of the opportunity.
“I have to stay focused and make a good start. It is always a bit hard, the first match. You need time to settle down and get into the competition. I guess, I’ll be ready and be close to 100% and then if I win obviously it’s going to be much better,” said the Spaniard, who has won seven singles title and is unseeded in Qatar.
“Last year I had knee injury which affected me for a few months. It was hard period to play with that pain in the knee. So I hope to have a better 2020 and put in some better performances and fight for a big title,” added Verdasco who moved to Qatar in 2015 and resides at The Pearl.
He will be taking on compatriot Pablo Endojar, something which he clearly doesn’t relish.
“It’s never nice to play a Spanish player, especially Pablo who is a good friend who I have known for years,” added Verdasco. “Also he is the only other Spanish player in the draw!”
American Frances Tiafoe, playing for the first time in Qatar, is impressed with whatever he has seen so far.
“I really like it so far. The courts are really nice, the stadium is also pretty nice, pretty big,” Tiafoe, who will be taking on a qualifier in the first round, said. With so many possibilities, predictions are best left to the officials.
“Maybe Rublev and Wawrinka in the final,” said Qatar Tennis, Squash and Badminton Federation general secretary Tariq Zainal.
That would indeed be the best scenario for everyone.
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