World No 1 Novak Djokovic will face Spain's Tommy Robredo in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships after the draw was made on Saturday afternoon.
Djokovic, the reigning Australian Open, US Open, and Wimbledon champion, is the big favourite next week and will be aiming to clinch a fifth Dubai title.
Second seed Stan Wawrinka, whose French Open triumph last season denied Djokovic a clean sweep of the grand slams, will face Ukraine’s Sergei Stakhovsky, who famously beat Roger Federer in the second round of Wimbledon in 2013.
Third seed Tomas Berdych, twice a losing finalist in Dubai, will begin his 2016 tournament against Portugal’s Joao Sousa, while No 4 seed Roberto Bautista-Agut will face Italy’s Simone Bolelli.
Among the pick of the first round matches include sixth seed Feliciano Lopez taking on fellow Spaniard and world No 35 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, seventh seed Martin Klizan facing highly-rated Australian Nick Kyrgios, and fifth seed Viktor Troicki playing former world No 8 Marcos Baghdatis.
Full draw:
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] v Tommy Robredo (ESP)
Qualifier v Malek Jaziri (TUN)
Yuki Bhambri (IND) v Lukas Rosol (CZE)
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) v Feliciano Lopez (ESP) [6]
Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) [4] v Simone Bolelli (ITA)
Hyeon Chung (KOR) v Andreas Seppi (ITA)
Vasek Pospisil (CAN) v Qualifier
Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) v Viktor Troicki (SRB) [5]
Martin Klizan (SVK) [7] v Nick Kyrgios (AUS)
Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) v Denis Istomin (UZB)
Qualifier v Leonardo Mayer (ARG)
Joao Sousa (POR) v Tomas Berdych (CZE) [3]
Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) [8] v Marsel Ilhan (TUR)
Borna Coric (CRO) v Jiri Vesely (CZE)
Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS) v Qualifier
Sergei Stakhovsky v Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [2]
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