An honorable farewell to the Arab representatives in “Dubai Tennis”… and heated confrontations at the end of the first round

The representatives of Arab tennis in the Dubai Duty Free Championship for professional players bid farewell to the tournament in its first round, on Monday, after an honorable performance by Tunisian Moez Al-Sharqi and Lebanese Benjamin Hassan.

Al Sharqi’s exit, ranked 141 in the world, came after losing in tie-breaks to Frenchman Giovanni Pericard, ranked 58 in the world, in two sets to one set (6-7, 7-6, 6-7), in a match that brought them together at the opening of the tournament held in its 34th edition in the Al Garhoud area in Dubai, which extends until February 28, and is classified in the 500 points category, with a total prize pool of $3.33 million.

In turn, the Lebanese Hassan, ranked 286th in the world, bid farewell to the tournament after losing to the 2016 Dubai Tennis champion, the Swiss Stan Wawrinka, ranked 99th in the world, by two sets without a response (5-7 and 3-6), in a match that lasted an hour and 15 minutes.

The opening day also witnessed a safe passage for the first seed in the tournament and the eighth seed in the world, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, by defeating the Chinese in two unanswered sets (6-3 and 7-6), in an hour and 50 minutes, before the curtain came down with the victory of the fourth seed in the tournament and the 15th in the world, British Jack Draper, over the Frenchman, Quentin Halles, ranked 68 in the world, by (7-6, 6-3).

Al-Sharqi gave a strong and competitive performance, losing the first set in a tie-break (6-7), before he was able to regain his credit by winning the second set in a tie-break (7-6), taking the match to a third set decider, which Perekar decided in a tie-break (7-6), in a match that lasted two hours and 36 minutes.

Moez expressed his happiness at participating in Dubai for the first time, and told “Emirates Today”: “The Dubai Championship is one of the best tournaments in the world in terms of organization and the strength of the players participating in it, in addition to the public support that gave me the feeling that I was playing in Tunisia.”

He added: “I gave my all 100%, and Giovanni is a solid player, and his matches are decided by small details, and the match was decided by those details, especially in the tie-breaking games.”

Tuesday matches (final of the first round)

14:00

Russian Daniil Medvedev x Chinese Juncheng Shang (Main Court)

Spain’s Pablo Carreño Busta x Canadian Denis Shapovalov (Sub Court 1)

Belgian Zizo Bergs x American Jason Brooksby (sub court 2)

16:00

German Jan-Lennard Struff x Kazakhstan Alexander Bublik (main court)

Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko x Russian Karen Khachanov (subcourt 1)

Hungarian Fabian Marozzan x Frenchman Arthur Rinderkneich (subcourt 2)

At 18:00

Frenchman Arthur Fels x Czech Jiri Lehička (Sub Court 1)

Finnish Otto Virtanen x Dutchman Talon Khrekspor (sub-court 2)

At 19:00

Frenchman Ugo Humbert x Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (main court)

20:00

Czech Jakub Menczyk x Polish Hubert Hurkacz (Sub Court 1)

Australian Alexei Popyrin x Polish Kamel Majczak (sub court 2)

21:00

Russian Andrey Rublev x Frenchman Valentin Royer (Main Court)