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ABU DHABI // Six of the world’s top nine players, including the current top four, will fight it out for a winner-takes-all US$250,000 (Dh918,275) prize at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi later this year.


Abu Dhabi line-up

RAFAEL NADAL

The man of the year. His injuries seemed so severe at one stage it seemed he may never play again. Yet he has roared back from his darkest period, winning at Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows on the way to reclaiming the top spot. Until his loss to Novak Djokovic in Beijing recently, he looked unbeatable on hard courts.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC

By his own very standards that he set in his annus mirabilis of 2011, 2013 was probably a bit of a letdown. He won the Australian Open - as he always seems to do - but failed to add to his haul subsequently. Still, 99.99% of the rest of the world’s players wouldn’t mind getting to two other major finals and one semi.

ANDY MURRAY

Until Nadal’s late surge, Murray was probably the man of the year, if only for the immense achievement of his Wimbledon title. He dipped a little thereafter, which should be worrying precisely because not dipping is what has defined men like Nadal, Federer and Djokovic. He has undergone a back surgery and will return to play in Abu Dhabi.

DAVID FERRER

The eternal warrior, Ferrer has skirted around just outside this golden age as arguably - in terms of consistency - the best player outside that quartet. This year he made his first Grand Slam final, at Roland Garros, without dropping a set. It was a breakthrough of sorts, though at 31, he is nearer the end than the beginning.

STANISLAS WAWRINKA

What a year for the Swiss, a year when he was, for once, not just the second-best Swiss player in the world. He made it this year on his own steam, a beautiful single-handed backhand behind much of his success. After years of trying made his first major semi-final in New York.

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA

Always a player to keep an eye on, if for nothing other than his beautiful all-court game. Tsonga, ranked ninth, has had a mixed year, with a semi-final at Roland Garros and a quarter-final in Melbourne to go with two injury-related pull-outs at Wimbledon and the US Open.

Organisers had already inked in Rafael Nadal, defending champion Novak Djokovic and 2009 winner Andy Murray.

Yesterday, at the Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex at Zayed Sports City, organisers announced the remaining three participants: David Ferrer, Stanislas Wawrinka and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Put together, organisers said, this will be “the strongest line-up in the history of” the championship, now in its sixth year.

The tournament, which has doubled up in recent years as ideal preparation running into the new year’s first major the Australian Open, will take place from December 26-28.

The organisers also announced Pat Cash as an ambassador, with the former Wimbledon champion hosting a tennis clinic for 400 schoolchildren in the afternoon.

“It’s a very competitive field and it really doesn’t get any tougher than that,” Cash said. “It’s the equivalent of playing a grand slam quarter-final – and a good grand slam quarter-final.”

Ferrer, the world No 4, echoed those sentiments.

“With such a strong line-up you know it’s not going to be an easy three days, but that’s what makes it exciting,” he said. “Everyone is working hard to be at the top of their game for the season ahead, and for us, this is a way to put our training to the test against the top players in the world.”

Nadal, Murray and Djokovic are previous champions and the Spaniard, freshly crowned world No 1 this week, returns after pulling out late last year due to an injury.

The three names added yesterday have all played here before and have had strong seasons.

Ferrer broke through to his first grand slam final at the French Open. Wawrinka, meanwhile, was a hugely popular semi-finalist at the US Open last month, but also played in arguably two of the finest grand slam matches this year, both against Djokovic.

He lost a five-hour, fourth-round epic in Australia having been 6-1 5-2 up and then again at the US Open semi-final, after leading two sets to one in a match that turned on a 21-minute, 30-point game in the final set.

“There are two players who have had breakthrough years, [and with Tsonga] two of the most exciting all-round players on the circuit this year,” Cash said. “We have the world’s top two players, who probably form the greatest rivalry in tennis history.

“They’ve played each other 38 times, more than Nadal-[Roger]Federer. This leads into the Australian Open so the players come here, they are ready to go. It’s not a casual warm-up event, they are 100 per cent ready to go when they come here.”

The seeding for the tournament has not yet been finalised though, if it follows previous years, the top two in the world rankings, currently Nadal and Djokovic, will get a bye to the semi-finals. The other four players will face off on the first day, before semi-finals and the final on the other two days.

osamiuddin@thenational.ae


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Thanks for the info. This will tide us over as we wait for Melbourne.

Thanks for the info about Abu Dhabi. My ATP/WTA on the handheld doesn't even show it!

Does anyone know if the matches will be streamed? Can't wait.....

so far I have not come up with any stream info.

tennis channel is up to its old tricks however. those morons will show the matches on delayed basis the following day.

here is the schedule:


Friday, December 27 (EST) Select Time Zone Pacific Mountain Central Eastern 

Time (EST) Program Title
6:00 AM  Seoul-WTA : Final 
9:00 AM  s-Hertogenbosch-ATP : Final 
11:00 AM  Newport-ATP : Final 
2:00 PM  Monte Carlo-ATP : Final 
4:30 PM  TC's Signature Series : Pete Sampras 
6:00 PM  Year in Review : 2013 
7:00 PM  Abu Dhabi : 1st Match (DELAY) 
9:00 PM  Abu Dhabi : 2nd Match (DELAY) 
11:00 PM  Abu Dhabi : 1st Match 
1:00 AM  Abu Dhabi : 2nd Match 

Top three set to open Abu Dhabi Tennis Championship



December 25, 2013 


LONDON: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray open the 2014 season in Abu Dhabi on Thursday with Roger Federer hoping his absence isn’t an indicator of more misery ahead.

World number one Nadal provided the comeback story of 2013, winning 10 titles, including a record eighth French Open and a second US Open which took his majors haul to 13.

Djokovic defended his Australian Open crown while Murray claimed Britain’s first Wimbledon mens’ title in 77 years.

But while the big three start their new campaigns with a leisurely three-day stroll in Abu Dhabi, record 17-time major winner Federer begins his 17th season as a professional in Brisbane and with his career at a crossroads.

In 2013, the world number six failed to reach a Grand Slam final for the first time since 2002 and his second-round defeat at Wimbledon ended his run of 36 consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final appearances.

Federer will turn 33 in August but is acutely aware that his great hero, Pete Sampras, quit at 31 and at the top of his game, having secured a fifth US Open.

His record against the sport’s big three also makes for worrying reading - he is 10-22 against Nadal having lost all four matches against the great Spaniard this year and 9-11 when up against Murray, losing their one clash in 2013.

He is still ahead in his rivalry with Djokovic at 16-15 but lost both their meetings this year while the Serb has taken six of their last eight matches. The Swiss goes into 2014 having severed his ties with long-time coach Paul Annacone, one of a number of players to have tweaked their back-up teams over the winter.

“For me, it’s pretty simple: this is what I used to do as a little boy. It’s something that always is there in your DNA,” said Federer, who will be playing a warm-up tournament in Australia for the first time in 11 years.

After Brisbane, where he is top seed, Federer heads for the Australian Open, a title he has captured on four occasions but where he has fallen in the semi-finals on his last three visits.

Nadal missed the UAE tourament in 2012 as well as the Australian Open as he nursed a knee injury for seven months, but he had a record-setting 2013, losing just seven times in 82 matches.

The 27-year-old is now just four majors behind Federer and with five years on his long-standing rival, is widely expected to pass the mark of the Swiss whose last major was the 2012 Wimbledon title.

Djokovic stunned tennis by hiring Boris Becker as his new head coach, a decision prompted by his desperate desire to improve a record that reads six Grand Slam titles but also six defeats in finals at majors. As well as defending his Australian Open title, Djokovic also has another big date lined up for early in the new year, marrying longtime girlfriend Jelena Ristic to whom he got engaged in September.

Murray missed the closing tournaments of 2013 to undergo back surgery and once his Abu Dhabi stint is over he will join Nadal as the leading attraction in Doha which, along with Brisbane and Chennai, opens the competitive season.

Agence France-Presse
 

Mubadala World Tennis Championship: Abu Dhabi



 Thursday December 26 Quarterfinals:

 #1 - 5 PM: David Ferrer vs Stanislas Wawrinka
 #2 - 7 PM: Andy Murray vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Friday December 27:

 #1 - 12:30 PM: Loser of Ferrer/Wawrinka vs Loser of Murray/Tsonga
 #2 - 3 PM: Rafael Nadal vs Winner of Ferrer/Wawrinka
 #3 - 5 PM: Novak Djokovic vs Winner of Murray/Tsonga

Saturday December 28:

 #1 - 3 PM: - Loser of Nadal vs [Ferrer/Wawrinka] vs Loser of Djokovic vs [Murray/Tsonga]
 #2 - 5 PM: MWTC Final

Thanks so much for this. Now I can set my DVR.

Yippee!

Andy Murray vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on ATM on serve 4-4 first set.

They are both serving quite effectively though Tsonga with more aces, but it doesn't matter because Andy's first serve % must be high with a high percentage of winning points.

Heading to TB methinks.