Pouille to challenge Dimitrov
dubai — ATP World Tour Finals champion and world number four Grigor Dimitrov will start as favourite to lift the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships trophy in just two weeks’ time, but he will face formidable opposition from a host of talented challengers including inform Frenchman Lucas Pouille.
Pouille, who will celebrate his 24th birthday on the eve of his Dubai campaign, will head here full of confidence having just days ago beaten Jo- Wilfried Tsonga before downing compatriot and three-time champion Richard Gasquet 7-6 (2) 6-4 in the final of the Montpellier event to take his fifth career title.
Pouille has come a long way since he had to fight his way into the main draw by competing in the qualifying competition in 2015 and 2016. Last year he marched all the way to the semifinals, edging past Roger Federer’s conqueror Evgeny Donskoy before losing to eventual champion Andy Murray. Very much a player on the rise, he claimed three titles last year, is in tremendous form and will clearly pose a threat to anyone he faces.
“I’m very happy with the win,” he said. “Obviously it was a tough match. Richard is an amazing player and one of the best on tour. The first set was very important and taking the tie-break led me to the victory. I’m very happy with the way I played. It was a great week for me. A great feeling.”
Gasquet, who will join Pouille in Dubai, has enjoyed a long and successful career that has seen him earn 14 titles and reach a further 15 finals. He has been ranked as high as seven in the world and he has been a semi-finalist at both Wimbledon and the US Open. He played a part in his country winning the Davis Cup, he won bronze in doubles at the London Olympics and he has also won the French Open mixed doubles.
Roberto Bautista Agut is another major contender who has already won a title this year, the seventh of his career, by overcoming former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro in the Auckland final in a three-set battle. The Spaniard is making his sixth successive appearance here and will be hoping for better luck with the draw than he has experienced so far.
The first two years saw him face Novak Djokovic in the second round, on his third visit he was edged out in a third set tiebreak by Richard Gasquet, again in the second round, and in 2016 he reached the quarter-finals before falling to eventual runner-up Marcos Baghdatis. Last year he fell in the second round to the eventual runner-up, Fernando Verdasco.