Dubai: James Ward doubled the British presence at the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open with a hard-fought 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 win over Marius Copil of Romania in their final qualifying round on a day hit by sandstorm on Sunday.
Ward’s win over Copil came in two hours and three minutes and will see the Davis Cup player join teammate and third seed Andy Murray in the main draw on Tuesday. Murray will mark his return to Dubai after a two-year gap that saw Great Britain’s number one player prefer to prepare elsewhere for Miami and Indian Wells than play in Dubai. He will start his campaign against Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller in their first round match on Tuesday.
The longest match of the qualifying rounds, however, was the one on Court 2 between Croatia’s Borna Coric and Fabrice Martin of France, with the Frenchman taking more than two and a half hours to defeat his opponent 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5).
Lucas Pouille, who had defeated the UAE’s Omar Behroozian in their first round match on Saturday, made it into the main draw with a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2 win in two hours and a minute.
Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan was the last of the qualifiers following his 6-4, 6-4 win over Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic.
There was further good news for Great Britain after Jamie Murray and John Peers teamed up for a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over Andrey Golubev and Denis Istomin to enter the main draw of the doubles.
The Dubai tournament is the last competition before Great Britain play the USA in their Round One World Group of Davis Cup at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland from March 6-8.