The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is to feature nine of the world’s top 10 women after Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard was awarded a wild card into the event.
The 20-year-old Canadian is currently ranked No 10 and heads to Dubai after reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
Bouchard’s 2014 breakthrough season saw her reach her first Grand Slam semi-finals, in Australian, and at the French Open, and she followed up those efforts by going all the way to the Wimbledon final before losing to former Dubai champion Petra Kvitova.
She was the first Canadian, male or female, to reach a Grand Slam final, going on to become the first Canadian ever to be ranked in the top five.
RELATED:
- Serena, Simona and the 10 to watch in Dubai – in pictures
- Djokovic calls for Dubai upgrade to 1000-level event
- The real face behind joker Djokovic remains hidden
A second wild card has been awarded to Flavia Pennetta. The Italian has claimed 10 singles titles and reached a further 14 finals, which includes lifting the Indian Wells title and reaching the final of the Tournament of Champions in Sofia in 2014.
She also has an impressive record at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, last year qualifying and then beating former champion and world number three Agnieszka Radwanska to reach the quarter-finals. Three years before she upset world number nine Victoria Azarenka.
American Casey Dellacqua, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova and Turkey’s Cagla Buyukakcay have also ben awarded wild cards.
“We are thrilled that Eugenie Bouchard has accepted a wild card into the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships,” said Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman of Dubai Duty Free, the tournament owners and organisers. “She has risen very swiftly to the top of the game and draws huge crowds wherever she competes, even generating her own Genie’s Army of enthusiastic supporters. Her participation here will make competition for the title stronger than ever and it is impossible to predict who will emerge at the end of the week as the winner.”
Play in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships begins with the WTA qualifying event which begins on February 13. Play in the main draw runs from February 15 to 21 and features world No 1 Serena Williams, French Open and WTA Finals runner-up Simona Halep, Wimbledon winner Kvitova, defending Dubai champion Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska, Ana Ivanovic, Ekaterina Makarova and Angelique Kerber.
The two week tennis festival then continues between February 23 and 28 with the ATP tournament which stars world No 1 Novak Djokovic, defending Dubai champion and world no 2 Roger Federer, Australian Open runner-up Andy Murray and two-time Dubai finalist Tomas Berdych.
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is owned and organised by Dubai Duty Free, and held under the patronage of H. H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
