Fed gets to play our old friend Kristian Pless first round, while poor Nadal gets Baghdatis. . . now if ever there was a nasty first-round opponent for a top seed, that's one!

Live stream this week from Dubai here:
http://www.eurosport.co.uk/mclivevideo.shtml

Amazing line-up !!! Federer, Nadal, Davydenko, Robredo, Haas, Berdych, Baghdatis, Youzhny, Ferrer, Djokovic etc.

Pick of the first round matches has to be Nadal v Baghdatis !!! They've played twice before, Nadal winning both encounters in straight sets last year: 7-5, 6-0 in the Indian Wells quarters and 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon semis. Nadal is the defending champion in Dubai, first time he will have played since the AO, has been injured. Could be very interesting as Nadal has really struggled lately against the elite power players, they've begun to work him out. Baghdatis had a rocky start to 2007 but going out of the AO early seems to have fired him up, since then he's won Zagreb and made the final of Marseille.

Ferrer v Soderling could also be a cracker, I'd favour Soderling in that one.

Federer shouldn't really be tested until the quarters where he's likely to meet Djokovic. Federer plays Pless in rd1.

Nadal could face Berdych in the quarters, if he gets past him and Baghdatis, I don't think anyone will stop him making the final.

Dayvdenko and Haas could meet in the quarters, a repeat of their Aussie Open quarter-final thriller. Haas is in great form and could cause Federer some problems if they meet in the semis

He gave Fed a really close match last year.

Berdych wins the third 6-2.

3-6 6-3 6-2

Just like Andy Murray.

johnnylad wrote:

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Berdych lost first set to Al Ghareeb 6-3

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 Berdych's form isn't great at the moment, apart from his serve he was poor against Youzhny in Rotterdam last week. Al Ghareeb seems to be inspired by Dubai, against Federer in 2006, Federer was very poor but Al Ghareeb still played way above his ranking. 

So who do we think will win Nadal-Baghdatis tomorrow ?