Kvitova looked spent from the beginning of the match, going down 0-5 before getting a game on the board.

Niculescu hit 12 winners to 17 unforced errors, converting six of seven break point opportunities, while a frustrated Sharapova sprayed 52 unforced errors to 31 winners.

Wozniacki looking at Sharapova in her second match…

“I like this tournament so much,” said Monfils, who benefited from a semifinal walkover win against top seed Dominic Thiem. “I always come back and I finally got it. So I’m just very happy and very proud.”

“It means so much more than just running away with it with the score maybe 6-4, 6-4, which was looking very likely at one stage. I guess I was much more happy having to go three sets in the end rather than winning in straight(s).”

Nadal essentially stated that even with a bad shoulder, he is taking the Middle Eastern cash tour that this week also included the lucrative Abu Dhabi exhibition. After the Australian Open he says he will shut it down for a month to heal-up, missing the Dubai event.

Djokovic broke Federer in the third game of the first set, and came down from a break in the second set. Djokovic consistently pounded the Federer backhand, which is not aging gracefully with the 29-year-old Swiss, much like Pete Sampras’ one-handed backhand declined in his final years. Late in the second set the Federer backhand also let him down, producing some critical unforced errors.

Russian workhorse Nikolay Davydenko was one match away from duplicating the 2010 feat when he defeated the top two players in the world, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, to repeat as Doha champion on Sunday, but this time the world No. 2 Federer was having none of it. Federer defeated Davydenko 6-3, 6-4 to claim his third career Qatar ExxonMobil Open title in Doha.

Roger and Rafa coming off the final at the cash-grab Abu Dhabi exo where Rafa won in two tiebreaks; organizers shelled out appearance money for world No. 1 Rafa and No. 2 Roger, but it falls off from there with No. 13 Tsonga the No. 3 seed; the Ukraine’s Sergei Bubka gets a wildcard; Federer likely to face two qualifiers in first two matches; Davydenko won the title last year, beating Roger and Rafa; returning champs in the field are Davydenko (2010) and Federer (2006-05).

Officials at the Hopman Cup exhibition were shocked when Marat Safin showed up for the event with a black and bloodied eye and cuts on his face after getting in a brawl in Moscow.

Big start to the New Year with just about all the top guys playing ATP events, including Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and the two Andys, Murray and Roddick, all in Doha.