Rafael Nadal made to work as Roger Federer wastes no time

Rafael Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga opened their seasons with hard-fought, first-round victories at the Qatar Open, but defending champion Roger Federer took less than an hour to trounce Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets.

The Swiss second seed won 6-2, 6-2 in contrasting fortune to Nadal and Tsonga. The second-ranked Nadal overcame Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3 in a match that lasted two-and-a-half hours, while the sixth-ranked Tsonga beat Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (5-7), 6-1.

Nadal, who has struggled with a sore left shoulder since the end of last season, started well and looked headed for a routine victory. But the 43rd-ranked Kohlschreiber stepped up his net play in the second set and levelled the match. Kohlschreiber went up a break in the third, but Nadal broke back and took control from there.

Helped by an improving serve and able to win most of the big rallies, he closed out the match with an acrobatic overhead smash and then a vicious crosscourt forehand that Kohlschreiber couldn’t reach. “For me, it was a really positive match,” Nadal said. “The only moment that I didn’t play well was the beginning of the second [set] and after the tiebreak. For the rest, I think I played a very solid match.”

Nadal admitted this was a tough opening draw, though he has never lost to Kohlschreiber in eight meetings.

Tsonga was challenged almost from the start by Jaziri in their first meeting. The 118th-ranked Tunisian kept Tsonga off balance, mixing in volleys and drop shots that had the third seed cursing to himself. But Tsonga could rely on his serve, which produced 12 aces.

The match turned in Tsonga’s favour in the deciding set when the Frenchman started going to the net more often.

“It was good for me to to stay a long time on the court,” Tsonga said. “But it was not easy today. Malek was in good shape. With the wind, it was really difficult to play my best tennis.”