ATP Dubai - DRAW: Roger Federer starts against Philipp Kohlschreiber
Dubai Tennis Championships made the quiet appearance in the ATP calendar in 1993, with the modest infrastructure and players' facilities, but it has been growing ever since! The first significant change could have been seen in 1996 when the Aviation Club Tennis Centre was opened to host the event and in 2001 it earned the promotion into the ATP 500 category, staying there ever since as one of the leading stops on the Tour below Grand Slams and Masters 1000 events. Over the years, some notable players lifted the trophy in Dubai, including Goran Ivanisevic, Thomas Muster, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka, but the two most standout competitors are Roger Federer with record-breaking seven titles and Novak Djokovic who won it four times, the last time in 2013.
Over the previous three years, Roger and Novak were unable to conquer Dubai and the Swiss will try to do that next week, looking to bounce back after that terrible 2017 loss against Evgeny Donskoy when he had three match points. Kei Nishikori is the top seed, facing Benoit Paire in the opening round before the second round clash versus Hubert Hurkacz or a qualifier, hoping for another good run and the place in the quarters. There, the 5th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas should be his rival if he recovers in time from a good result in Marseille and a trip to Dubai after that, facing Matthew Ebden in the first round and Robin Haase in the battle for the place in the last eight.
The 3rd seed Marin Cilic has played only one tournament so far in 2019 and he will try to bounce back and earn some points after dropping a lot of them in Melbourne when he failed to defend the final. Marin will face an in-form Gael Monfils in the tricky first round and the winner should have an easier job in the second round against Marcos Baghdatis or Mohamed Safwat who both received the main draw wild cards. The 8th seed Daniil Medvedev has to beat a qualifier and then Matteo Berrettini or Denis Kudla to advance into the last eight and it would be interesting to see him against Cilic in that clash for the semi-final spot.
Karen Khachanov and Borna Coric lead the third quarter and they will have to defeat Mikhail Kukushkin, Tomas Berdych, Aljaz Bedene, Roberto Bautista Agut, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Nikoloz Basilashvili to set up the quarter-final duel, with a former semi-finalist Coric playing just five matches so far in 2019. Milos Raonic opens the campaign against Jan-Lennard Struff before a possible second-round test in Marton Fucsovics. Fernando Verdasco meets a qualifier while two veterans complete the draw, with the seven-time champion Roger Federer facing Philipp Kohlschreiber for the 14th time, never losing against the German before. Full draw:
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2IAv3lA
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