Rose dips out of Dubai finale
JUSTIN ROSE has stepped aside in the race to become Europe’s No1 by withdrawing from this week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
Rose’s decision means Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood will have the stage to themselves in the climax to The Race to Dubai.
Rose, who won the PGA Tour’s FedExCup play-offs this season, needed to win the tournament and hope Molinari finished outside the top 40 in the 60-man event to top the European Tour’s standings.
Rose kept his hopes alive with victory at the Turkish Airlines Open but hinted afterwards Dubai might be one event too far for him.
“I have a lot going on in the next couple of weeks, so it would be a big shift for me,” he said. “There are things I need to get figured out.”
Rose, who lost the world No1 slot to Brooks Koepka when the rankings came out yesterday, is switching club manufacturers from TaylorMade to Japanese brand Honma Golf.
Ryder Cup team-mate Paul Casey is also skipping the Dubai event. ALEXANDER ZVEREV praised coach Ivan Lendl after beating Marin Cilic 7-6, 7-6 in his opening match at the ATP Finals.
The German world No5, who hired Andy Murray’s former mentor in August, said: “We think the same way – we both want to win and we don’t care so much about the rest.”
World No1 Novak Djokovic made short work of John Isner to win his opening match 6-4, 6-3 at The O2 in London. aren’t robots and we don’t want them to be.
“I don’t think it got out of hand.
“What I don’t know is what words were exchanged, and how Max was antagonised. Of course we don’t condone violence in any way but you have to understand that emotions are running very high.
“Through the irresponsible actions of a backmarker we’ve lost a grand prix, and it just wasn’t handled at all well by Ocon. It was totally irresponsible to be racing Max.”