Ernests Gulbis gave Roger Federer a bit of a scare just the other day when they competed in Qatar. Federer won 6-2 4-6 6-4 but it there were some people biting their fingernails pretty hard, it would seem. Federer is really concerned about getting back into his top level of play, but he has underachieved it for a long time. He wants to get a good big win to start out the season. This might propel him towards an Australian Open win in a couple weeks. He will probably have a tough competitor in Nadal again this year, as it appears that they will both be healthy this year. Nadal has been hard to figure for the last half year or so, because he’s been close to the top of the rankings, but he hasn’t been able to play very much. Then when he does, he underperforms. But both of them got a good start to their season this year, so we’ll see what happens next!

UPDATE: Federer was ousted by Davydenko just a few minutes ago, so it wasn’t the glowing start that he had been hoping for, but it was worthwhile.