ATP 500 Dubai : Preview

Not often do you find 8 of top 10 players gather at a single ATP event and that is exactly why the ATP 500 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship that begins tomorrow at Dubai will be a special event to look out for. The only top 10 players missing the tournament would be the spaniards Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer.

Defending Champion Novak and Runner-up Roger have been seeded No.1 and 2 respectively this year.

The draw is out and it pits defending champion Novak Djokovic and 4-time champion Roger Federer in opposite halves. A pulsating final could well be on the cards. But before that, there are chances of a repeat of the epic Australian open semifinal clash with Andy Murray falling in Novak’s half of the draw. Following the trio pretty closely are the likes of the in-form Tomas Berdych, the men who recorded their 200^th wins this week in Marseille – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin del Potro. So the action at Dubai is going to be very interesting. A sneak preview on what’s in store for the top two seeds follows:

Djokovic’s half

Djokovic is poised to have an easy first round outing against Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, a win over who will probably pit him against Stakhovsky in the second round. The winner of the potential match-up between Ivan Ljubicic and Janko Tipsarevic is who Djokovic is likely to face in the quarters. For Murray, who Djokovic can meet in the semi-final, the biggest hurdle might come in the second round if and when he meets Nikolay Davydenko who made things difficult for Roger in the Rotterdam semifinal last week. Murray has to weather the Berdych storm if he has to set a match for avenging his Australian Open loss to Novak.

Federer’s half

Roger Federer has got to start briskly, for he faces the talented and in-form Michael Llodra(who is playing the final against delPotro today at Marseille) in his first rounder. A possible breezer against Feliciano Lopez in round two can take him to the winner of a Fish-Gasquet second round encounter. A repeat of the Marseille semi-final between delPotro and Tsonga might be in the offing at the quarters here, the winner having a probable chance to better their head-to-head against Roger in the semis. An intriguing delPotro-Dolgopolov clash highlights the first round clashes in this half and the wildcard given to Marko Djokovic might set him up a possible clash against Juan Martin in the second round.

With power-hitters scheduled to pack punches on each other at the Hard Decoturf surface, it remains to be seen who would walk away with the whopping US $1,700,475 and the nice ship-like trophy when the power-packed tournament ends on the 3^rd of March.