DUBAI: Eighteen of the world’s top tennis stars, including Novak Djokovic, are set battle it out to become the first winners of the World Tennis League at Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena from Dec. 19 to 24.
The event, held in partnership with Dubai Sports Council, will also see post-match concerts from award-winning acts Tiesto, deadmau5, Wizkid, Armin van Buuren, Mohamed Ramadan, and Ne-Yo.
The participants have an impressive 39 Grand Slam titles to their names, including a remarkable 21 singles crowns held by Djokovic.
In an official WTL draw, the 18 players were placed into four teams and will compete in a round-robin format, featuring a men’s singles, a women’s singles, and a mixed doubles. Matches will consist of two sets, with a tiebreaker played if necessary.
The four teams competing for the title will be the Falcons consisting of Novak Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Aryna Sabalenka, and Paula Badosa, the Hawks made up of Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Elena Rybakina, and Anett Kontaveit, the Kites with Felix Auger-Aliassime, Gael Monfils, Iga Swiatek, Sania Mirza, and Eugenie Bouchard, and the Eagles team of Nick Kyrgios, Rohan Bopanna, Caroline Garcia, Bianca Andreescu, and Andreas Seppi.
WTL chief executive officer, Scott Davidoff, said: “The World Tennis League promises a memorable experience for everyone who attends the Greatest Show On Court, and the four teams are certain to provide excitement and thrills galore as they each fight it out for the right to be crowned champions.
“And what better combination can there be, with award-winning entertainers following on-court tennis action to round out each day in style?”
Taking part alongside Djokovic will be German player Zverev, who by reaching the 2022 French Open semi-finals climbed to No. 2 in the world, Auger-Aliassime, who as one of the most talented young players on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour has been re-writing the history books of Canadian tennis, and Australian star Kyrgios, one of the most colourful characters in the game and runner-up to Djokovic in the 2022 Wimbledon final.
Joining them will be former world No. 3 and 2020 US Open champion Thiem, who is working his way back up the rankings after suffering a severe wrist injury, Dimitrov, former junior world No. 1 and Bulgaria’s most successful player in ATP history with three Grand Slam semi-final appearances and the winner’s trophy earned at the 2017 ATP finals, and Monfils, acclaimed as one of the greatest showmen the sport has ever seen.
Seppi, the first Italian to win a title on all three surfaces will also be competing along with Indian doubles veteran Bopanna, who at 42 still holds a doubles ranking inside the world’s top 20.
The women’s line-up is headed by dominant world No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek, who this year has been setting new records on the Women’s Tennis Association Tour.
She is joined by reigning Wimbledon champion Rybakina, who has wins this year over three former Grand Slam champions, Kontaveit, winner of six WTA titles, with another 10 runner-up trophies and the first Estonian to participate in the WTA Championships where she went all the way to the 2021 final, and Badosa, a former French Open junior champion competing in the WTL after this year climbing to No. 2 in the world.
Also appearing in the UAE will be Sabalenka, a multi-Grand Slam semi-finalist (Wimbledon 2021, and the US Open 2021 and 2022), and a former doubles world No. 1 with two Grand Slam doubles titles, and Andreescu, the highest-ranked female Canadian in history, who became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title at the 2019 US Open and the first player to win a Grand Slam singles title as a teenager since Maria Sharapova in 2006.
Garcia, one of only a handful of players to defeat Swiatek this year, in which she reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at the US Open, will be taking part too, as will Mirza, the first woman from her country to win a WTA singles title, the first Indian woman to win a Grand Slam title, the doubles at Wimbledon in 2015, and the first Indian woman to rise to world No. 1 in either singles or doubles, and Bouchard, who contested the 2014 Wimbledon final.
