ABU DHABI // The Mubadala World Tennis Championship (MWTC) could potentially be a stage for French celebrations at the start of the New Year in Abu Dhabi, after organisers announced that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils will be playing in the seventh edition of the tournament on the first weekend of January.
The pair have helped take France to the final of the Davis Cup and are to take on Switzerland at the end of November in France. There they will face another of the Mubadala line-up, the Australian Open winner and world No 4, Stanislas Wawrinka.
The announcement yesterday completed the six-man line-up, with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray already announcing their intention to take part.
That means the tournament, which features three of the world’s top four, six of the top 20 and three of 2014’s grand slam title winners, retains an element of familiarity. Five of the six played last year, and all of them have played in the championships at least once.
“All of these players have played here, and the fact that they want to keep coming back says something about the pedigree of the event,” said Greg Sproule, the Middle East managing director for IMG, which organises the tournament.
“But what we try to do as much as possible is we try and replicate the conditions at the Australian Open. They’re playing the same ball, the same surface. The weather conditions can’t be that different – we try to replicate that.”
Last year, six of the world's top 10 were featured, but the return of Monfils, one of the tour's most popular and entertaining players is a particular boon.
Monfils last appeared in the tournament in 2011 and said he was excited to be back again.
“It’s important for me to hit the ground running at the start of the year, and the timings are perfect for us to get a lot of good matches in at the highest level,” he said.
Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, the tournament’s ambassador, called Monfils the “most entertaining player I have ever seen” on a tennis court.
“You absolutely cannot take your eyes off him for a second,” Cash said. “It’s not just me. I have heard it from pro players who say he is the greatest athlete to walk on a tennis court and have seen him do so many incredible things.”
The schedule has not been released, but the format is unchanged. That means that, if the tournament is seeded according to current ATP world rankings, on January 1 Tsonga will play Murray and Monfils will play Wawrinka in the quarter-finals. The winners advance to play Djokovic and Nadal, respectively, while the first-day losers meet in a fifth-place match.
The championship and third-place matches will be played on January 3.
Organisers also announced that health issues will not prevent Rafael Nadal from appearing at the MWTC.
Nadal, the world No 3, is a regular at the tournament but has had another spell away from the game. The Spaniard was out of action for two months with a wrist injury, and when he returned to the court in China last week he was knocked out by Feliciano Lopez in the second round while suffering from appendicitis.
He said then that he might opt for minor surgery, but only after the World Tour finals in London in November. MWTC organisers said that was not serious enough to keep him away.
“The latest [with Nadal] is that we’re in touch with his team on a regular basis,” said Greg Sproule, the Middle East head of IMG, which organises the tournament.
“He just played in China and that means he is back and playing, which is great news. We’re in touch with his manager Carlos Costa, who has said he is coming to Abu Dhabi.
“We have to rely on what he is saying and we pressed him quite hard in terms of is he coming, and he said yes and said put me down and quote me that he is coming.
“So that is the strongest endorsement we can get. The fact that he has just played in China is fantastic news.”
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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