Excitement builds as Murray leads challenge
Following the release on Wednesday of the ATP line-up, there’s mounting excitement for the 25th Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships from February 19 to March 4.
The field is headed by recently knighted Wimbledon, Olympic, ATP World Tour Finals champion and World No. 1 Andy Murray. Last year he claimed nine titles, including five in a row as he closed out the season establishing a 24-match winning streak as well as the World No. 1 spot.
Although he has yet to win the Dubai title, he did reach the final in 2012 by beating Tomas Berdych and Novak Djokovic before falling to Roger Federer.
Defending Dubai champion Stan Wawrinka added a third Grand Slam since he beat Marcos Baghdatis in last year’s final, winning the US Open to add to Australian and French Open wins.
Seven-time Dubai champion Federer will also be in the hunt, and he has the possible advantage of being totally fit and hungrier for success than most after missing the second half of last season through injury. Before the Swiss legend was sidelined after Wimbledon, he earned a record 300th Grand Slam match win, and in June claimed his 1,072nd victory to surpass Ivan Lendl for second in the Open era most wins tally behind Jimmy Connors.
Another challenger comes in the form of Tomas Berdych, whose record in Dubai includes two finals and two semis in the last six years. He has also succeeded where most have failed by beating Federer in Dubai in the 2013 semi.
While the above are wellknown to Dubai fans, a strong challenge could also come from those less familiar.
Gael Monfils has played just once in Dubai in 2008. But since then he has established himself on tour winning Washington last year and reaching the US Open semis.
Fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille, who was barely inside the Top 100 last year, was voted as the most improved player of 2016 after breaking into the top 20.