MWTC Day 2 welcomes the big guns as Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka take to the court

The second day of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship will see Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka mkae their first appearances of the tournament.

Rafael Nadal spent Day 1 of the tournament meeting fans and signing autographs. He begins his Mubadala campaign at the semi-final stage against fellow Spaniard David Ferrer. Ali Haider / EPA

No name is ever a small one at the Mubadala World Tennis Championships (MWTC) — the event’s unique selling point is precisely how many of the top players it attracts every year.

But on Friday, Abu Dhabi will welcome into action the really big names this year. Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka will make their first appearances in this, the eighth year of the event, when they take on David Ferrer and Milos Raonic respectively in the semi-finals.

Nadal against Ferrer, compatriots, countrymen and opponents, is a match familiar to most fans: they have played 30 competitive matches against each other on the circuit.

Nadal, famously, has a vastly superior record, having won 24 of those matches and 13 of their last 15 encounters. But for the purposes of their semi-final, the more pertinent stat might be that Ferrer has won both his encounters against Nadal at the MWTC.

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On both occasions, in December 2011 and 2013, he won in the semi-final. And, in the 6-1 6-1 54-minute beating he handed out to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Thursday, he looked as sharp as a needle, a three-week off-season programme leaving him as fit as ever.

“I have good memories of beating Rafa here,” he said. “Tomorrow is going to be a different match, a different year. I will try and play similar like today.

“I know Rafael is one of the best players in the world. I have played good matches with him. Tomorrow is one more match in our careers and life. It’s going to be tough for sure.”

Spectators will not be starved for variety, that much is certain. If lots of long rallies can be expected from Nadal-Ferrer, the second semi-final of the day will be about how well Wawrinka can handle the big serves of Raonic.

Raonic beat South Africa Kevin Anderson in the evening game on Thursday, also in straight sets (6-3 6-4 and in just over an hour) though not with the ease with which Ferrer triumphed.

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Raonic, debuting at the MWTC, is more than just a big server though, in possession of a swiftly expanding all-round game. Had he not picked up a foot injury last year in May, he would have ended the year with a higher ranking than 14 and probably a couple more titles.

“It’s a tough challenge for sure,” Wawrinka said, of the prospect of facing Raonic’s serves. “Those two [Raonic and Anderson] have some of the best serves on the tour.

“It’s always difficult to break them, to find a solution. But again, like all the players there, they have big shots and they have weakness also, so you have to find what you can do against those serves, find a way to beat them. It’s going to be interesting for the first match.”

As the only player outside the ‘Big Four’ to have won multiple grand slams — and really, perhaps it should be the ‘Big Five’ now — Wawrinka will be one of the players to watch in 2016.

“I’m happy to be back in Abu Dhabi,” he said. “It’s always been a great start for me the past few years since I arrived here, there’s always great conditions to play here. So hopefully I can play well the next few days.”

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