The confrontation of Tsitsipas and Humbert ignites the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship
Dubai, February 21, WAM / The draw for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship for the ATP500 category resulted in strong confrontations in the first round, with the first and second seeds avoiding falling in the same path, before the start of the competitions of the 34th edition, which will be held from 23 to 28 February this year.
Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, ranked first in the world in the tournament and ranked seventh in the world and runner-up in the 2024 edition, will begin his campaign against Chinese Qi Zhenzhang, while Kazakh Alexander Bublik, ranked second in the world in the tournament and tenth in the world and runner-up in the 2025 edition, is waiting to determine his opponent in the qualifying rounds.
The draw witnessed an anticipated confrontation between the two former champions, the Frenchman Ugo Humbert, who will be crowned in 2024, and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who will hold the 2025 title, in the most prominent matches of the first round.
The Lebanese Benjamin Hassan, ranked 287 in the world, will also meet the Swiss Stan Wawrinka, the Dubai champion ten years ago, in his final season at the Professional Players Association level.
Hassan stressed that the confrontation represents a great challenge for the Grand Slam champion, indicating that he will go into the match with a high fighting spirit.
Hassan had entered the history of Lebanese sports by participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics as the first individual player to represent Lebanon. He also became the first Lebanese to reach the main table of the Roland Garros tournament in the open era.
The list of participants includes eight of the top 20 global players, along with five former champions, including Russian Daniil Medvedev, the 2023 champion, who will face China’s Junzheng Zhang, and Russian Andrey Rublev, 2022 champion against Frenchman Valentin Royer, in addition to Czech Jakub Menchik against Polish Hubert Hurkacz, and Czech Jiri Lehczka against Frenchman Arthur Vis.
Salah Tahlak, tournament director, announced that three invitation cards were granted to Hassan, Wawrinka, and Tunisian Moez Al-Sharqi, ranked 139th in the world, expressing his hope that the two Arab players will constitute a source of inspiration for the youth of the region.
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