Two more days - then the tennis fans can look forward to matches that are about something. Well, first and foremost for the honor and a little prize money, but who doesn't want to tackle the tasks ahead with a sense of achievement before the turn of the year?

And so Hyeon Chung and Kevin Anderson will open the self-proclaimed Mubadala World Tennis Championships in Abu Dhabi at 4:00 p.m. local time. With the prospect that the winner will face Rafael Nadal in the first semi-final on December 28th.

Dominic Thiem meets Karen Khachanov. The two had last met in the semifinals of the Masters 1000 tournament in Paris Bercy - in a match that the Russian could ultimately clearly win for himself.

"Sister Act" as the only women's match

There is a place in the second match of the semi-final against Novak Djokovic. For Khachanov it would be the final re-match of Paris-Bercy, where he had surprisingly prevailed against the world number one.

The women are only scheduled for day one, but with the new edition of a classic: the Sister Acts. So Serena Williams meets Sister Venus before the two separate ways. Serena will start at the Hopman Cup, Venus will start her season in Auckland. The sister duel took place a total of 30 times on the WTA tour, most recently at the US Open 2018. There Serena, who leads in the overall balance with 18:12 victories, had won smoothly in two sets.