Oraganisers for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship announced the men’s line-up on Thursday, with five of the world’s top-10 ranked players headlining the field.
Title-holder and world No 2 Novak Djokovic will return to defend his championship, with Roger Federer (No 6) the most highly-decorated competitor in his way.
Juan Martin del Potro (5), Tomas Berdych (7) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (10) round out the top-10 ranked participants.
Additionally, two-time Dubai finalist and world No 15 Mikhail Youzhny highlights a pack that also includes German Philipp Kohlschreiber (No 23), Italian Andreas Seppi (25), Russian Dmitry Tursunov (26) and the man who shocked Roger Federer at Wimbledon in the second round last year, Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.
Federer, Tsonga and Djokovic have currently advanced to the third round of the Australian Open. Del Potro has not played his second-round match.
Youzhny, Tursunov and Seppi were all upset in the second round. Kolhschreiber withdrew.
The rest of the Dubai Tennis Championship men’s announced field includes world No 34 Ivan Dodig (Croatia), No 37 Florian Mayer (Germany), No 44 Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic), No 47 Lukas Rosol (Czech Republic), No 49 Denis Istomin (Uzbekistan), No 59 Daniel Brands (Germany), No 61 Nikolay Davydenko (Russia), No 62 Roberto Bautista Agut (Spain), No 64 Michal Przysiezny (Poland), No 73 Igor Sijsling (Netherlands), No 76 Victor Hanescu (Romania), No 79 Teymuraz Gabashvili (Russia) and No 81 Benjamin Becker (Germany).
Highly-ranked Petra Kvitova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic will compete in the women’s tournament, as well.