Dubai: The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships will feature a stunning nine of the world’s top 10 women after Canadian superstar Eugenie Bouchard was awarded a wild card into the event on Friday.
The latest of several young rising stars that will feature in what promises to be an exciting week of tennis, the 20-year old has risen to as high as five in the world and still sits firmly inside the top 10 after last month reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
Her 2014 breakthrough season saw her reach her first Grand Slam semi-finals — at the Australian Open, where a year earlier she had failed to qualify, and at the French Open.
And she followed up those efforts by going all the way to the Wimbledon final, beating top 10 opponents Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep before her run was ended by former Wimbledon and Dubai champion Petra Kvitova. She was the first Canadian, male or female, to reach a Grand Slam final and she went on to also become the first from her country to ever to ranked in the top five.
A second wild card has been awarded to Flavia Pennetta. The popular Italian has claimed an impressive 10 singles titles and reached a further 14 finals, which includes lifting the Indian Wells title and reaching the final of the Tournament of Champions in Sofia in 2014.
She also has a fantastic record at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, last year qualifying and then beating former champion and world number three Agnieszka Radwanska to reach the quarter-finals. Three years before she upset world number nine Victoria Azarenka.
Casey Dellacqua has been given a wild card for the third time. The feisty Australian last year qualified for Indian Wells and went all the way through to quarter-finals, where she came up against recently crowned Dubai champion Venus Williams. Dellacqua stretched her to three close sets before the relieved American edged through.
A fourth wild card has gone to Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, who has been ranked as high as five in the world in both singles and doubles. She has six singles titles, with her most recent coming in Birmingham in 2013, and she has contested a further nine finals. She has earned a rare Grand Slam of mixed doubles titles, lifting the trophy at Wimbledon and the Australian, French and US Opens.
The final wild card has been awarded to Turkey’s Cagla Buyukakcay, ranked 117. She was a recent member of Turkey’s Fed Cup team, and most of her success has come on the ITF circuit, where she has earned six singles and 14 doubles titles.
“We are thrilled that Eugenie Bouchard has accepted a wild card into the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships,” said Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman of Dubai Duty Free, the tournament owners and organisers.
“She has risen very swiftly to the top of the game and draws huge crowds wherever she competes, even generating her own ‘Genie’s Army’ of enthusiastic supporters. Her participation here will make competition for the title stronger than ever and it is impossible to predict who will emerge at the end of the week as the winner.”
Qualifying started on Friday, while play in the main draw runs from February 15 to 21. The men’s tournament then runs from February 23 to 28.
Tickets are available from the box office at the Dubai Tennis Stadium, Garhoud, which opens from 9am to 9pm daily. Tickets are still available for every day of the women’s week and start at Dh75 for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Grandstand tickets can also be bought online at www.timeouttickets.com.
For more information visit www.dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com.
