Organisers of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship promise yet another stellar field for the upcoming seventh edition of the tournament a day after they announced the return of the world’s top two, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
Greg Sproule, the managing director of organisers IMG Middle East, says the rest of the six-player field will be revealed in the coming weeks and that they are working on assembling the best line-up possible.
Last year’s line-up was the tournament’s best ever, with all six players belonging to the top-10.
“The objective is to have the best player field that we can possibly have. We see no reason why that won’t continue for the 2015 event,” Sproule told Sport360°.
“We’re working very hard to invite the best players. To make it fun and different and dynamic for everyone. We don’t want to have exactly the same field year after year.
“But with the world’s No1 and No2, we’ve got off to a wonderful start.”
Sproule added that they choose players not just on their rankings, but on their movement within the rankings. He explained that the variety in the player field also opens up new markets for the tournament in terms of TV rights deals.
New additions to the top of men’s tennis this season include Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis, while youngsters like Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios may not have joined the game’s elite just yet, but have already created a huge buzz on the major stage.
Asked whether someone like Kyrgios could be a candidate or whether the focus remains on top-10 players, Sproule said: “Sure. We look at the rankings, we look at the movement within the rankings quite seriously, to be able to offer different players to come in.
“It also has to work for the players. They have schedules and travel plans that we have to respect. The one thing that we do know is that everybody we reach out to is interested and knows about the event. Seven years ago when we were kicking it off, we had a lot of educating to do. That’s changed. Players amongst themselves speak very highly of the tournament.”
One former regular of the tournament who has not featured in the roster since the December 2011 edition is 17-time major champion Roger Federer.
The Swiss star has not come to the Abu Dhabi showpiece for the past two years, during which he has parted ways with IMG, his former representatives. Asked whether Federer, who usually is training in Dubai during the time of the tournament, will ever return to the MWTC line-up, Sproule said: “We have an enormous amount of respect and a wonderful friendship with Roger. He’s a fantastic player and a fantastic human being. We’d always like to have Roger come back and play. We just need to make sure it works on both sides of the equation. He travels the world heavily and has a busy schedule. We’d love to have him come back and play soon.”
Last year, several players, including Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga complained that the surface of the courts at Zayed Sports City was too fast. The tournament’s idea has always been to try to mimic the conditions of the Australian Open to give players the best possible preparation for the opening grand slam of the season, but players felt last year that the courts were particularly quick.
“Very fast conditions – one of the quickest courts that I’ve played on in the last couple of years – it’s so difficult to play,” said Nadal last year in Abu Dhabi.
Sproule says there will be no significant change in the speed of the courts for the January 2015 edition compared to last year.
“We did have some comments. It depends, some players like the courts fast and some like it slow. It depends on what you’re used to,” said Sproule.
“What we’re obligated to deliver is a surface that is safe, that nears as much as practical as the conditions as the Australian Open.
“We listen to all the feedback but we’re also bound by obligations to the players and our TV colleagues and the viewers around the world. We’ll listen but I’m not sure it’ll be slowed down significantly.”
A new element that was added to the MWTC last year was the presence of two ambassadors, Australian legend Pat Cash and UAE No1 Omar Behroozian, who both engaged in community activities throughout the event. Sproule says the ambassador programme proved highly successful and that we can expect something similar with a few “innovative twists” to be present this January.
Tickets for the January 1-3, 2015 tournament go on sale today (Tuesday) at midday, while a special pre-sale was open to FLASH members since yesterday (Monday).
