DUBAI: The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is set for a star-studded week of world-class action following the official 56-player draw for the WTA 1000 event, which is set to get underway tomorrow at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium and run until 24th February.
The impressive women’s field for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships includes 15 of the world’s top 20 players, including 10 Grand Slam winners boasting a collective 17 Grand Slam titles between them.
While the top eight seeds all received first-round byes, World No1 and top-seed Iga Swiatek, a four-time Grand Slam winner who reached the final in Dubai last year, is on course for a second-round meeting with 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens – who faces one of eight qualifiers in the opening round – before a potential match-up with two-time Dubai winner Elina Svitolina in the third round.
Swiatek’s half of the draw also features the likes of 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff (No4 seed), World No6 Ons Jabeur (No6 seed), 2017 French Open
champion Jelena Ostapenko (No10 seed), and recent Australian Open finalist Qinwen Zheng.
‘This year marks the 24th anniversary of the WTA tournament, which has constantly grown, even more significantly in the past 12 months as our competition was recently awarded permanent WTA 1000 status from this year onwards,’ said Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free. ‘It’s fantastic to see so many of the world’s top players here again – 15 of the world’s top 20 is a testament to the esteem our event continues to enjoy on the WTA Tour.’
On the opposite side of the draw, back-to-back Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka (No2 seed) is on course to meet World No8 and reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova (No7 seed) in the quarter-finals. Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon winner (No3 seed), World No9 Maria Sakkari, and Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion are among those that will stand in her way as she vies to progress past the quarter-finals in Dubai for the first t
ime.
The Official Draw event was attended by Arab superstar Jabeur, 2017 and 2018 Dubai winner Svitolina, and World No27 Donna Vekic. Jabeur is relishing making her ninth appearance in Dubai after injury prevented the current Tunisian No1 from participating in last year’s event.
The 24th edition of the annual WTA event takes place one week before the men’s event at the same venue. The women’s competition will run between 18th and 24th February, before the 32nd staging of the ATP Tour 500 tournament from 26th February to 2nd March.
Source: Emirates News Agency