Dubai: The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships management is unfazed at the last-minute withdrawal of some of stars from the 2018 Women’s Open, that gets under way from Monday.
World No. 2 Simona Halep was the latest to state her inability to play in Dubai after she pulled out of the Qatar Open late on Friday despite winning her quarter-finals in straight sets against Catherine Bellis.
Earlier on Thursday, former world No. 1 and five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova withdrew from Dubai in the middle of the week along with US Open finalist Madison Keys.
The 30-year-old Russian was scheduled to make her Dubai return for the first time after 12 years, but had to withdraw with a fore arm injury after losing in her opening round against Romania’s Monica Niculescu last Monday.
This year’s women’s competition had promised a mouth-watering display of tennis after an initial confirmation from eight of the top-10 players for Dubai.
“Such things happen in any sport. These players are humans too and they can fall ill or get injured. There is nothing anyone can do about this,” Salah Tahlak, Tournament Director, told Gulf News after conducting the draw at the Majlis of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, on Saturday.
“We still have a field with a lot of depth. We have six of the top-10 and as many as four Grand Slam champions in the main draw alone. Other than that, we have a former Grand Slam champion [2011 US Open champion] who had to start off in the qualifiers as she didn’t have the required ranking to make it into the main draw,” Tahlak added.
Among the top stars who will be seen in action here are Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza, defending Dubai champion and recent Brisbane winner Elina Svitolina, 2018 Sydney champion and Australian Open semi-finalist Angelique Kerber, two-time Wimbledon winner and 2018 St. Petersburg champion Petra Kvitova, Auckland winner Julia Goerges, 2016 US Open finalist and former world number one Karolina Pliskova.
“Injuries and illnesses are part of the game. It is not the end of the world. We still have some of the best players and fans can look forward to a great week of exciting women’s matches,” the tournament director insisted.
The draw ceremony on Saturday, attended by players Elise Mertens, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Kiki Bertens and Lucie Safarova alongside Colm McLoughlin, Executive vice-chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free, WTA supervisor Donna Kelso and Nasser Yousuf, general secretary of Tennis Emirates, threw open some interesting opening round match-ups.
The top four seeds: Elina Svitolina, Garbine Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova and Jelena Ostapenko — have all received first round byes. All four women who go through the qualifying rounds on Monday morning will be placed in the upper half of the draw that will see German Kerber face up Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova.
The lower half is more star-laden with Great Britain’s Johanna Konta taking on Pavlyuchenkova, Safarova will be up against French girl Caroline Garcia, while Mertens takes on one of two wild cards Bellis.
“The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is one of our events that has helped us reach the top of our game,” McLoughlin said.
“Last year’s two weeks of tennis had an estimated market value of $920 million (Dh3.36 billion) and we also registered our best sales. This event has definitely helped us achieve our goals,” he added.
