Lots of floaters in the draw and tough opening-round match-ups including (1) Radwanska vs. Petkovic, (8) Safarova vs. Pliskova in an all-Czech, (6) Vinci vs. Makarova, (3) Muguruza vs. Lisicki, and (2) Kerber vs. the riser Beck in an all-German…

As Ray Moore might say, ‘There are a lot of attractive ladies out there — umm, competitively attractive…oh crap, I’ve done it again.

What, too early for Maria jokes?

Suarez Navarro with the win also rises to No. 2 in the 2016 Road to Singapore standings behind Angie Kerber.

Two surprising finals will be contested Saturday in the Middle East.

Pulling from the tournament were Roger Federer (knee surgery) and Janko Tipsarevic…The absent Federer is the two-time defending champ, beating Djokovic in last year’s final…Federer and Djokovic have won the last seven titles between them…Djokovic (2013,’11-09) is the lone former champ in the field.

History has already been made in Dubai this week as for the first time ever at a WTA event no seeds won a match.

American Taylor Fritz received a special exempt into the main draw after his run in Memphis…Other interesting starts for Del Potro vs. American Denis Kudla, with the winner likely meeting (3) Karlovic, and (2) Tomic vs. the hot-handed net-crushing Rampras…

Sharapova said her boatload of unforced errors, 46, was just part of the plan of being aggressive against Bencic.

Tough starts for (5) Pliskova vs. Ivanovic, (3) Kvitova vs. Lisicki, and (2) Radwanska after a bye vs. the Stosur-Vinci winner…

Both Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova show up to defend their Brisbane titles, where the men’s and women’s fields are stellar for an opening week to the year where the majority of the stars are usually off playing lucrative exhibitions.

Notes: Strong seeding but not a lot of field depth…(4) Tomic will start against the Querrey-Baghdatis winner…Top 4 seeds receive opening-round byes…Wildcards went to Berdych, Swede Mike Ymer and Finn Jarkko Nieminen…Last year Berdych came from a set down to beat Dimitrov in the final…Berdych trying to become the first Stockholm back-to-back winner since James Blake (2005-06)…Former champs in the field are Berdych (2014,’12), Dimitrov (2013), and Baghdatis (2009).

Contrary to what commentator Chris Evert says, Serena Williams is the GOAT. She, the Martinas, everyone else is out. But having said that, the odds are against Serena that she is going to win the US Open and complete the calendar year Grand Slam. The pressure build up is too great.

All the big dogs take to the court on both the men’s and women’s sides in Cincinnati, which sees defending champ Roger Federer return to the court after skipping Montreal last week.

Sixteen of the Top 17 turn out this coming week for the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where world No. 1 Serena Williams will test the right elbow injury that has forced her to withdraw from her last two tournaments.