Tennis bits and bobs: Novak Djokovic doing doubles in Doha; Aussie teen Kokkinakis beats Benneteau in Brisbane

Novak Djokovic will begin his ATP Tour play for 2015 in the doubles format to determine if he's fit for a run in the singles tournament on Monday while Thanasi Kokkinakis, 18, earned a win in Brisbane.

Novak Djokovic speaks during a press conference in Abu Dhabi on Thursday before he played in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, reaching the final but withdrawing on Saturday. Marwan Naamani / AFShow more

ATP Doha

Novak Djokovic will start the 2015 ATP World tour season by playing doubles to determine whether he is fit enough to begin the new year with a bid for a 49th career title.

Doubts were cast over the world No 1's ability to make a prompt start to what could be a history-making year by the fever which caused his withdrawal from the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

Djokovic was nevertheless well enough to travel to Doha, and although he declined to do a press conference on Sunday, he expects to make an exploratory start on Monday, in partnership with young compatriot Filip Krajinovic.

If that goes well, Djokovic would begin an attempt to succeed title-holder Rafael Nadal with a debut match in the ATP Qatar Open against another fellow Serb Dusan Lajovic on Tuesday.

If he competes it will be only the third time that Djokovic has competed in the opening week of a season.

And there are significant advantages for the seven-time grand slam winner to try to do this.

Not only might it aid his preparation for a bid to regain the Australian Open title starting in Melbourne in two weeks’ time, it might even boost a belief that he can complete a career grand slam in Paris in June.

The French Open is the only grand slam title to have eluded Djokovic, 27, and if he were to win a final next Saturday against Nadal, even on a different hard court surface, it would do no harm to his hopes of beating the nine-times champion on the Roland Garros clay.

Djokovic and Krajinovic will play their first round doubles match on Monday against Jabor Ali Mutawa of Qatar and Melak Jaziri of Tunisia.

Djokovic’s first round singles, against Lajovic, would be pitting him against the world No 69.

The tournament begins on Monday, with Richard Gasquet facing Pablo Andujar Ivo Karlovic taking on Lukas Rosol among the first-round matches scheduled to take place.

Egyptian world No 289 Mohamed Safwat will also be on display against world No 89 Ivan Dodig of Croatia,

WTA Auckland

Second seed Sara Errani crashed out of the opening round of the Auckland Classic WTA tournament on Monday, beaten in straight sets by Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova.

It took Hantuchova just 75 minutes to take the match 6-3, 6-2 as the Italian world No 14 Errani continued to be hampered by the rib injury that affected her at the end of last season.

The 31-year-old Hantuchova produced her power game firing down an ace with her first serve and followed with soft touches to break Errani for the first time in the fourth game.

Errani rallied at the start of the second set to break Hantuchova to take a 2-0 lead before losing the next six games as she failed to find an answer to the Slovakian’s broad shot selection.

Eighth seed Mona Barthel also fell by the wayside, with the German easily overrun 6-2, 6-1 by wildcard Ana Konjuh of Croatia while sixth seed Sloane Stephens and fourth seed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova survived to the second round.

Strycova was taken to three sets by South African Chanelle Scheepers before winning 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 while Stephens was untroubled beating Silvia Soler-Espinosa from Spain 6-3, 6-1.

ATP Brisbane

The Brisbane International began first-round play on Monday, with a pair of local favourites among the three early winners.

Australians James Duckworth and Thanasi Kokkinakis defeated Frenchmen Gilles Simon and Julien Benneteau, respectively. Duckworth advanced in an easy 6-2, 6-2 victory and Aussie prodigy Kokkinakis, 18, beat world No 25 Benneteau 6-4, 6-3.

He will next play either fellow Australian youngster Bernard Tomic or American Sam Querrey, who play later Monday. Duckworth is set to met either Denis Kudla or Jarkko Nieminen.

Monday’s other winner, Jeremy Chardy of France, advances to face Grigor Dimitrov after defeating Andrey Golubev 6-4, 6-4.

WTA Shenzhen

Former world No 2 Vera Zvonareva, who has plummeted to 250 in the rankings, took her first steps in a 2015 attempted comeback by ousting home favourite and No 3 seed Peng Shuai at the Shenzhen Open on Monday.

The 30-year-old was a finalist at both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2010 but has since been dogged by injury and illness.

Peng, China’s top women’s player following the retirement of Li Na last year, took the first set in their first round match but the Russian ground out the last two to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in 2 hours and 24 minutes.

Top seed and world No 3 Simona Halep survived a scare against Annika Beck of Germany.

The world No 55 broke Halep to take a 3-2 lead in the deciding set, but the Romanian took the next four games to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Czech second seed and world No 4 Petra Kvitova defeated Duan Yingying of China 6-3, 6-1 as well.

ATP Chennai

The Chennai Open will begin on Monday, with 18-year-old Croatian Borna Coric, who beat Rafael Nadal in Basel in October, leading things off against world No 80 Robin Haase of the Netherlands.

Gilles Muller faces Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Andreas Haider-Maurer will play Marcel Granollers, as well.

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