Normal service is resumed next month when four-time former champion Roger Federer returns to the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships after an injury-forced absence in 2009.

You have to hand it to Australian qualifier Jordan Szabo, who certainly earned his place in the second round of the Australian Open boys’ tournament with a stomach-churning 76 16 1311 win over Ronak Manuja of India which got the tournament off to a dramatic start. “I just kept going,” said Szabo afterwards. “I had a match point at 9-8 on his serve and then another three or four at 10-11 and then finally took one to go 13-11. I was definitely starting to get tired at the end. I felt pretty good but I was definitely starting to feel like I needed food and stuff. It felt like we’d been going for well over three hours and then I found out afterwards it was three and a half hours. It’s quite a long time, especially when one of the sets was 6-1. It’s the longest match I’ve ever played.”

World number one Serena Williams struggled to a 7-5 5-7 6-3 win over China's Zheng Jie on Monday to earn a place in the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open.After Sunday's surprises, another contender fell with Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva making a surprise exit at the hands of Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 7-5 6-4.Serena's sister Venus came from a set down to beat Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska 4-6 6-1 6-4, keeping alive the chances of an all-Williams semi-final.