Al Habtoor hoping to attract stellar field

Dubai: The organisers for the 11th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge are once again expecting a top level field for the annual tournament, possibly led by Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova.

"We have enquiries from at least eight top-100 players who want to come and play here," Hani Al Khafief, the technical adviser for the annual Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge, told Gulf News.

Though the names of these top eight players are yet to be confirmed, Al Khafief maintained that the profile of this tournament is still high as some women want to use it as part of their pre-season preparations. And the 20-year-old Cibulkova is one of these stars who has shown a strong inclination of making an appearance in Dubai.

The Slovak makes her maiden appearance at this competition with a strong pedigree. A former World Junior No 3, Cibulkova achieved a career-high ranking on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in the first week of July when she climbed to No 12. At the moment she is No 16.

"The interest from some of the top players is there and we are certain at least a handful of these will play in the tournament this year," he said.

Competition will get under way with the qualifiers tomorrow and Sunday, while the main draw matches will get under way from December 14 till the final on Saturday.

So far, there has been no official word from defending champion, the 18-year-old Russian Vitalia Diatchenko who secured a hard-fought 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 win against the favoured Urszula Radwanska at the Habtoor Grand Resort and Spa last year.