Top-seeded David Ferrer started the new season with a dropped first set here on Tuesday to Dustin Brown, a qualifier outside the world’s top 150, and a damaged court which opened like a crater on the moon.
Repairs appeared to involve tape and glue on a tear about five feet behind the baseline where Ferrer’s heel had ripped into the surface.
There was also an anxious-looking conference and a ball-boys’ impromptu Gangnam-style dance session on the playing area during a delay which lasted more than an hour.
It was eventually two and a half hours before the world number five from Spain survived his first round in the Qatar Open by 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 against Brown, who is a tall, Jamaica-based German nicknamed “Dreddy,” with impressive locks flying down to the small of his back.
“None of it was easy,” said Ferrer, which was an understatement. Brown was unusual for his aggressive serving, eager forward movement, and willingness to volley, and other circumstances must have seemed to Ferrer bizarrely familiar.
Two years ago he and Andy Roddock were forced off their court at the US Open by a crack near the baseline which let the water through, and required them to change courts, and last year at New York a tornado forced Ferrer and Novak Djokovic to interrupt their semi-final by an entire day.