Djokovic wins Dubai crown

Novak Djokovic won his first tournament of the year over the weekend, defeating David Ferrer in the final at Dubai. There were a few big-name players absent from the event: Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Roddick. This does not take anything away from the Djoker's victory, but the tournament was surrounded in controversy due to the UAE's denial of a visa to Israeli women's player Shahar Peer. Roddick stated this as his reason for withdrawal, and as the defending Dubai champ, it was a popular move on his part. Federer and Nadal cited injuries.

There were lots of interesting comments on this at Jon Wertheim's mailbag. Incidentally, a comment of mine was included in that mailbag, though it had nothing to do with the Peer controversy. I noted that 7 of the top 8 men's seeds made it to the quarterfinals in Australia. There are three things about this that I found funny. First of all, I did not write "in the Australia" when I submitted the comment. Apparently this was added for clarification since it was published after the tournament was over. But instead of "in Australia" or "in the Australian Open", somebody mixed the two together, making it look like I used poor grammar. I got a good laugh out of that. Secondly, the answer to my question is wrong. The following week's mailbag states that all 8 seeds made the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1960. This right after telling the readers that if Sharko says it's so, it's so. I guess it's possible that Jon was using sarcasm to make fun of Sharko, but I doubt it. Lastly, my inquiry may have been misunderstood. I was actually interested in the last time 7 of the top 8 seeds had made it to the quarterfinals of a major, not necessarily all 8 seeds. But I did get an interesting answer, so I can't complain.

The next big tournament is Indian Wells. That should be a good one, especially if Federer and Nadal are both playing well.