Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep and the five players to watch at the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships

Ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Ahmed Rizvi picks five players you need to watch out for this week.
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Petra Kvitova
Ranking: No 9
Career titles: 17
Career prize money: $20,444,703
Dubai timeline: 2009-R64; 2011-R64; 2013-W; 2014-R16; 2015-R16
A two-time Wimbledon champion, Kvitova has a strange record in Dubai. Champion in 2013, she has won only one of her match in four other visits to the tournament. Asked about it last year, the Czech said: "That's how it is with me". She then talked about her "very high highs" and her "very low lows". Unfortunately, this year looks a lot like the latter. Kvitova has only one win from five matches this year, but she certainly has the game to turn it around and a wild card in Dubai might just be the opportunity she needs to do it.

Karolina Pliskova
Ranking: No 13
Career titles: 4
Career prize money: $3,116,561
Dubai timeline: 2013-QR32; 2014-R32; 2015-F
One of the biggest servers on the women's side of the game, Pliskova defeated some big names on her way to the final last year, including Ana Ivanovic, Lucie Safarova and Garbine Muguruza, before losing to Simona Halep. She lost to Halep in Sydney earlier this year as well, but got her revenge in the Fed Cup last week. The Czech wildcard then comes to Dubai with her confidence on a high and if she can keep firing in those big serves, she could be making another deep run into the tournament.

Simona Halep
Ranking: No 3
Career titles: 11
Career prize money: $11,193,052
Dubai timeline: 2012-R16; 2013-R16; 2014-R32; 2015-W
Halep's start to the 2016 season has been disrupted by injury and illness. She pulled out of Brisbane with an Achilles problem at the start of the year and then looked rather subdued in a straight sets loss to Chinese qualifier Shuai Zhang in the opening round of the Australian Open. Later she revealed she was suffering from a few infections and will skip the Fed Cup and Dubai to have a nose surgery. Now, she has put the surgery on hold and decided to defend her Dubai title, courtesy a wild card. Given her sizeable expat support in Dubai, Halep is definitely going to be one of the top attractions of the WTA week.

Garbine Muguruza
Ranking: No 5
Career titles: 2
Career prize money: $6,272,973
Dubai timeline: 2015-SF
One of the top performers of 2015 with an appearance in the Wimbledon final and a Premier Mandatory title at the China Open, Muguruza has had a slow start to 2016, pulling out of Brisbane with injury and then losing to Barbora Strycova in the third round of the Australian Open. With the two big tournaments, Indian Wells and Miami, coming up in March, the Spaniard will be looking to gather some steam here in Dubai, just like she did 12 months ago, beating players like Jelena Jankovic, Agnieszka Radwanska and her doubles partner Carla Suarez Navarro on her way to the semis.

Belinda Bencic
Ranking: No 11
Career titles: 2
Career prize money: $2,450,992
Dubai timeline: 2015-R32
Bencic, like Muguruza, has been making waves in recent seasons, with two impressive title wins in 2015, at Eastbourne where she defeated Caroline Wozniacki in the semis and Agnieszka Radwanska in the final, and then Canadian Open, where she beat six grand slam finalist, including Serena Williams in the semis, en route. Last week, she took down Australian Open champion Kerber in straight sets to lead Switzerland into the last four of the Fed Cup. She was victorious in all three of her Fed Cup matches, so should arrive in Dubai brimming with confidence.