The new tennis season is less than a week away and while many are still catching their breath from a whirlwind 2015, the players are expected to be ready to start all over again come Sunday.
Some stars will even be in action before next week as Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal lead a six-player field in Abu Dhabi this weekend at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, while Agnieszka Radwanska and Venus Williams headline a four-player exhibition in Hua Hin, Thailand from December 31 to January 1.
– INTERVIEW: Svitolina working hard on progress
– INTERVIEW: How Bencic is breaking the mould
– VOTE NOW: End of Year Awards 2015
– INTERVIEW: Andy Murray on fatherhood and 2016
Before the players hit their first ball of 2016, here’s a look at the biggest news and talking points from the offseason…
Federer’s big revelations
Roger Federer will be sans Stefan Edberg in 2016 as the Swiss world No3 announced earlier this month he was parting ways with his coach of two years and that he added Ivan Ljubicic to his team as a replacement, with Severin Luthi still acting as his main coach.
Federer also revealed he will be playing mixed doubles with Martina Hingis at the Rio Olympics before he unveiled his tentative schedule for 2016 which surprisingly – or maybe not – included just one clay event, Roland Garros, with no warm-ups for the grand slam on the red dirt.
Ace your New Year with me at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi! pic.twitter.com/PBx7CS0F1f
— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) December 15, 2015
With no tournaments scheduled between Indian Wells and the French Open, Federer could end up going without a competitive match for a full two months.
Odds are he will add one clay event if he’s feeling good and tournaments had better keep those wild cards free and available for the Swiss Maestro.
Coaching carousel
Milos Raonic, who lost his coach Ljubicic to Federer, said he won’t hire anyone right away and will be working full-time with Ricardo
Piatti, who had been a consultant for the Canadian.
Grigor Dimitrov has enlisted the help of Franco Davin, Juan Martin del Potro’s ex-coach, while Andy Murray will continue working with Amelie Mauresmo but is more than likely done with Jonas Bjorkman.
Thanasi Kokkinakis ended his 12-year partnership with Todd Langman and hired Ben Mathias.
Borna Coric is no longer with Thomas Johansson and has brought in Miles MacLagan, a former coach of Murray.
Eugenie Bouchard trained for 2016 with Maria Sharapova’s ex-coach Thomas Hogstedt at the IMG Academy in Florida.
World No19 Elina Svitolina spent some time working with Justine Henin in the offseason but is unsure what their partnership will look like moving forward.
Madison Keys parted ways with Lindsay Davenport and has teamed up with ex-world No69 Jesse Levine, while Britain’s Heather Watson is no longer with Diego Veronelli.
Early withdrawals
Richard Gasquet apparently aggravated a back problem playing the first two legs of the IPTL and is out of the season’s opening-week event in Doha.
Kokkinakis announced he’s missing the entire Australian summer with a shoulder injury while Lucie Safarova has pulled out of the Hopman Cup in Perth saying her “health complications continue”, and has been replaced by Karolina Pliskova. Safarova was hospitalised after the US Open with a bacterial infection.
