Roger Federer will make his return to tennis at this week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The legendary Swiss has not played a competitive match since falling to Stefanos Tsitsipas in a surprise fourth round loss at the 2019 Australian Open. He will return to the scene of his second most beloved city in search of an astonishing 100th career title. However, his path to achieve that feat will not be easy by any stretch of imagination, considering the playing field at the event. Federer has been handed a very difficult draw with the likes of Milos Raonic, Borna Coric and Karen Khachanov all lurking in his half of the draw. The seven-time champion will play veteran Philip Kohlschreiber in the first round, and is projected to meet Fernando Verdasco and Milos Raonic in the next two rounds.
Kei Nishikori is the top seed this week following Federer’s drop in the rankings. The Japanese man has made a fantastic start to 2019 with a title win in Brisbane before reaching the quarterfinals of thee Australian Open and the semifinals in Rotterdam. He will be making his debut appearance in Dubai and has a tricky opening match against Benoit Paire. Nishikori has a potential quarterfinal meeting against Federer’s conqueror in Melbourne, Stefanos Tsitsipas. However, in fairness that should not be a difficult hurdle for the Japanese man considering the Greek’s long week in Marseille.
Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, is making his first return to Dubai since 2010. The Croat struggled at this year’s Australian Open with a knee issue during his 5-set loss to Roberto Bautista-Agut. Cilic has been handed a horror opening round match against the flashy Frenchman Gael Monfils who is playing the best tennis of his life. Monfils made the semifinals in Sofia and won the ABN AMRO World Tennis tournament in Rotterdam a week ago.
Roberto Bautista-Agut is the defending champion of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. He is another man to watch out following his brilliant start to the year. The Spaniard is the only man to have beaten World No.1 Novak Djokovic in 2019. He also secured wins over Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych en route to a title win in Qatar. He will open his title defence against wildcard Ramkumar Ramanathan.
Russia’s Karen Khachanov is struggling for matchwins this year after an explosive week in Bercy towards the end of 2018 when he beat Djokovic to win his first Master 1000 title. He plays Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first round and could meet defending champion Bautista-Agut in the second round.
Fellow rising youngster Borna Coric will also be looking to make a statement in Dubai. The Croat has fond memories of the city. In 2015 he received a lucky loser spot in the main draw and shocked then World No.3 Andy Murray en route to the semifinals where he lost to eventual champion Roger Federer. Coric will play Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin.
