All eyes on possible Federer-Murray rematch

Dubai: All eyes will be on a possible Australian Open re-match between world number one Roger Federer and number three Andy Murray in the semifinal of the men's competition at the 2010 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships that gets under way from Monday.

Murray, who retired in the quarterfinals here last year, will have to first wade past a qualifier in his opening round and then possibly Russia's Mikhail Youzhny, who made it to the final in Rotterdam last week.

The world's best player and a four-time winner in Dubai is not bound to have an easy outing either as he has to first play Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the first round with the winner going through for a meeting either against Jurgen Melzer or Simon Bolelli in the second.

And if the 16-time Grand Slam winner lives up to his potential, Federer will most likely meet Marin Cilic in the quarterfinals before his clash against Murray.

Draw

Defending champion and world No 2 Novak Djokovic, who is holding the lower part of the draw, will meet Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the first round and then possibly wild card Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Gilles Simon is hoping to make a winning return to the ATP Men's Tour when he takes on former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis in the first round of the men's contest at the 2010 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships that get under way tomorrow.

Simon, who was one of the important people attending the draw ceremony for the ATP Men's Open yesterday, told Gulf News that he hoped to stay injury and carry forward his career in tennis.

"I will just try to focus on the first round and see how things are headed from then on," Simon stated.

Irritating lesion

An irritating lesion on the right knee tendon has kept the Frenchman, now ranked No 16 in the world, out of competition till now. Simon did play at the Marseille Open earlier this month, but with very little success.

"I need to get as many matches as I can before I can start setting realistic goals for myself," he shrugged.

Should Simon make it past two rounds, his reward will be a meeting against fourth seed and 2009 ATP World Tour Final winner Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the quarterfinals.

After a final round of qualifiers today, the main draw action will get under way from Monday with play being held in two sessions at 2pm and 7pm at the Dubai Tennis Stadium.