ATP Dubai: Nick Kyrgios, Matteo Berrettini and Gael Monfils cancel the start, Rafael Nadal waives the wildcard
Flood of cancellations for the ATP 500 event in Dubai. For the tournament that starts next week, three prominent players have canceled their start. In addition, Rafael Nadal will not serve in the United Arab Emirates either.
by Fink / Rothschädl
last edit: Mar 11, 2021, 09:56 am
Bad news for the organizers of the Dubai ATP 500 event. The tournament in the desert of the United Arab Emirates had already had to digest the cancellation of the defending champion and world number one Novak Djokovic, who wants to recover from an injury after the Australian Open. Now three other top stars have canceled their participation.
As it became known on Wednesday afternoon, Nick Kyrgios, Gael Monfils and Matteo Berrettini will not start in Dubai either. The latter, like Djokovic, had to fight an injury at the Australian Open and even had to give up his last 16 duel with Stefanos Tsitsipas without a fight. Previously, the Italian had presented himself in great shape and at the ATP Cup, the world number four, Dominic Thiem, was shown in phases.
Things are different with Gael Monfils, who recently started working under the aegis of the Austrian Günter Bresnik. The Frenchman has been struggling with a protracted form crisis since the interruption caused by COVID-19 and recently wanted to take a break to find the same thing. A break that Monfils now obviously wants to extend before returning to the ATP tour.
Kyrgios remains (still) in Australia
And Nick Kyrgios? As in almost the entire calendar year 2020, he does not want to leave his home country Australia due to the currently rampant COVID-19 pandemic. The enfant terrible had last made its comeback at the Australian Open and performed brilliantly up to (and also during ) its end against Dominic Thiem in round three.
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Rafael Nadal, who was linked to a tournament in Dubai on Thursday evening, will not play in Dubai either. Nadal wrote on Twitter that he had seriously thought about contesting the event, but didn't feel ready for competitive tennis yet. The 20-time Grand Slam winner had back problems before and at the Australian Open .
In Dubai - if there are no further cancellations - the same athletes number one and number two on the tournament grid will be dressed as they did at the ATP 250 event in Doha: Dominic Thiem and Roger Federer. As in the capital of Qatar, Andrey Rublev will start on three. The tournament will start next Monday.
You can find all information about the ATP event in Dubai here!