Novak Djokovic leads strong line-up of players, teams for World Tennis League in Dubai

Novak Djokovic will be one of the biggest attractions at the inaugural World Tennis League event in Dubai. (Supplied)
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Updated 08 November 2022
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Novak Djokovic leads strong line-up of players, teams for World Tennis League in Dubai

  • 18 of world’s best tennis pros will compete in inaugural event from Dec. 19-24

DUBAI: Eighteen of the world’s top tennis stars, including Novak Djokovic, are set battle it out to become the first winners of the World Tennis League at Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena from Dec. 19 to 24.

The event, held in partnership with Dubai Sports Council, will also see post-match concerts from award-winning acts Tiesto, deadmau5, Wizkid, Armin van Buuren, Mohamed Ramadan, and Ne-Yo.

The participants have an impressive 39 Grand Slam titles to their names, including a remarkable 21 singles crowns held by Djokovic.

In an official WTL draw, the 18 players were placed into four teams and will compete in a round-robin format, featuring a men’s singles, a women’s singles, and a mixed doubles. Matches will consist of two sets, with a tiebreaker played if necessary.

The four teams competing for the title will be the Falcons consisting of Novak Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Aryna Sabalenka, and Paula Badosa, the Hawks made up of Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Elena Rybakina, and Anett Kontaveit, the Kites with Felix Auger-Aliassime, Gael Monfils, Iga Swiatek, Sania Mirza, and Eugenie Bouchard, and the Eagles team of Nick Kyrgios, Rohan Bopanna, Caroline Garcia, Bianca Andreescu, and Andreas Seppi.

WTL chief executive officer, Scott Davidoff, said: “The World Tennis League promises a memorable experience for everyone who attends the Greatest Show On Court, and the four teams are certain to provide excitement and thrills galore as they each fight it out for the right to be crowned champions.

“And what better combination can there be, with award-winning entertainers following on-court tennis action to round out each day in style?”

Taking part alongside Djokovic will be German player Zverev, who by reaching the 2022 French Open semi-finals climbed to No. 2 in the world, Auger-Aliassime, who as one of the most talented young players on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour has been re-writing the history books of Canadian tennis, and Australian star Kyrgios, one of the most colourful characters in the game and runner-up to Djokovic in the 2022 Wimbledon final.

Joining them will be former world No. 3 and 2020 US Open champion Thiem, who is working his way back up the rankings after suffering a severe wrist injury, Dimitrov, former junior world No. 1 and Bulgaria’s most successful player in ATP history with three Grand Slam semi-final appearances and the winner’s trophy earned at the 2017 ATP finals, and Monfils, acclaimed as one of the greatest showmen the sport has ever seen.

Seppi, the first Italian to win a title on all three surfaces will also be competing along with Indian doubles veteran Bopanna, who at 42 still holds a doubles ranking inside the world’s top 20.

The women’s line-up is headed by dominant world No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek, who this year has been setting new records on the Women’s Tennis Association Tour.

She is joined by reigning Wimbledon champion Rybakina, who has wins this year over three former Grand Slam champions, Kontaveit, winner of six WTA titles, with another 10 runner-up trophies and the first Estonian to participate in the WTA Championships where she went all the way to the 2021 final, and Badosa, a former French Open junior champion competing in the WTL after this year climbing to No. 2 in the world.

Also appearing in the UAE will be Sabalenka, a multi-Grand Slam semi-finalist (Wimbledon 2021, and the US Open 2021 and 2022), and a former doubles world No. 1 with two Grand Slam doubles titles, and Andreescu, the highest-ranked female Canadian in history, who became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title at the 2019 US Open and the first player to win a Grand Slam singles title as a teenager since Maria Sharapova in 2006.

Garcia, one of only a handful of players to defeat Swiatek this year, in which she reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at the US Open, will be taking part too, as will Mirza, the first woman from her country to win a WTA singles title, the first Indian woman to win a Grand Slam title, the doubles at Wimbledon in 2015, and the first Indian woman to rise to world No. 1 in either singles or doubles, and Bouchard, who contested the 2014 Wimbledon final.


Draper powers past Rune to win Indian Wells ATP Masters

Updated 17 March 2025
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Draper powers past Rune to win Indian Wells ATP Masters

  • Draper: All the work I’ve done over the last few years, it feels like it’s all coming together on the big stage and I can’t put that into words
  • Draper’s run to a third career title included victories not only over Alcaraz but also over 2022 Indian Wells winner Taylor Fritz and big-hitting home hope Ben Shelton

INDIAN WELLS, California: Britain’s Jack Draper roared past Denmark’s Holger Rune 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday to win his first ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells.

The 14th-ranked Briton, who toppled two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals, didn’t face a break point as he subdued the 13th ranked Dane in just 69 minutes.

He’ll make his top 10 debut on Monday at seventh in the world.

“It’s incredible,” said Draper, a US Open semifinalist last year whose preparations for 2025 were hindered by a flareup of hip tendinitis.

“I’m just so grateful and happy to be out here, to be able to play, my body feeling healthy, to feel great in my mind.

“All the work I’ve done over the last few years, it feels like it’s all coming together on the big stage and I can’t put that into words,” added the 23-year-old, who also missed significant time with a shoulder injury in 2023.

Draper was rock-solid in his first Masters 1000 final, racing to a 4-0 lead as Rune made a nervous start.

Draper dropped just four points on serve in the opening set as Rune, who burst on the scene with a precocious Paris Masters triumph in 2022, had 10 of his 19 unforced errors in the set.

The Dane had managed to hold serve twice before Draper pocketed the set, giving himself set point with an ace before Rune thumped a backhand into the net.

Draper broke Rune to open the second set, and even though the Dane got a few more looks at Draper’s second serve he couldn’t take advantage.

Draper seized a second break for a 5-2 lead and after sending a forehand long on his first match point he had the win when Rune went long with a backhand.

Draper’s run to a third career title included victories not only over Alcaraz but also over 2022 Indian Wells winner Taylor Fritz and big-hitting home hope Ben Shelton.

“I feel like I deserve it, in all honesty,” Draper said. “It’s an emotional feeling to know how much you’ve gone through and put in and to be here now to say that I’m going to be No. 7 sin the world tomorrow, I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”


Andreeva, 17, tops world No. 1 Sabalenka for Indian Wells title

Updated 17 March 2025
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Andreeva, 17, tops world No. 1 Sabalenka for Indian Wells title

  • Andreeva shook off her first set woes and broke Sabalenka three times in the third pushing her 2025 record to 19-3 — the most wins of any woman on the WTA tour

INDIAN WELLS, United States: Russian 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva toppled world number one Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday to capture her second WTA 1000 title at Indian Wells.
Andreeva, who last month become the youngest ever player to win an elite 1000 level crown with her triumph in Dubai, ended a frustrating run against the Belarusian to ensure she will rise to a career-high sixth in the world on Monday.
Andreeva shook off her first set woes and broke Sabalenka three times in the third pushing her 2025 record to 19-3 — the most wins of any woman on the WTA tour.
“I would like to thank myself for fighting to the end,” Andreeva said. “I was running like a rabbit today because Aryna she was sending bullets and it was really hard to keep up.”
In a match of swinging shifts of momentum, Andreeva was in full control by the end, giving herself a match point on Sabalenka’s serve with a defensive lob that forced a miss from the number one and clinching victory with a forehand winner.
“The match point I just really tried to just put the return in, it doesn’t matter how,” she told Tennis Channel. “Then I just saw the ball and I decided I might just go for it.
“And I did,” added Andreeva, who sank to her knees in celebration after her winner landed.
Andreeva claimed her first hard court victory over Sabalenka, who had beaten her twice already this year at Brisbane and the Australian Open.
Sabalenka had powered into the final without dropping a set but it was another disappointment for the Belarusian, who was stunned by Madison Keys in the final at Melbourne to see her bid for a third successive Australian Open title denied.
Unlike in Melbourne where she played “like a joke,” Sabalenka said, this time she let her emotions get the best of her.
“Honestly, was me against me,” she said. “I made a lot of unforced errors on important points, and I just let her play a little bit better ... I was just too pissed with myself, because I think it shouldn’t be the way I finished and I was just pissed with myself.
“I should have just thrown that aggression on that side instead of being too hard on myself.”
Andreeva had Sabalenka under pressure early, and the youngster’s frustration was evident as she was unable to convert four break points in the third game.
Sabalenka took full advantage, breaking the Russian to love for a 3-1 lead and keeping her foot firmly on the accelerator from there.
Sabalenka backed up her power from the baseline with some confident forays to the net, breaking Andreeva to take the opening set in 37 minutes.
“The anger was just boiling inside of me, because I had a lot of opportunities I didn’t convert,” said Andreeva, who wasted another three break points to open the second set.
She finally gained a foothold with a break for 2-1 — pouncing on a Sabalenka second serve to end a run of 18 missed break point chances against the Belarusian this year.
“I was so desperate to win at least one game on her serve ... every time she served I just tried to win one more game and then one more game,” Andreeva said. “Somehow I kind of crawled and came back and we got into the third set like this.”
Andreeva saved a pair of break points to push her lead to 4-2, her winners tally climbing with her confidence.
After missing one chance to take the set on Sabalenka’s serve, Andreeva sealed the set with her first love service game, complete with a pair of aces to close it.
The Russian maintained her momentum as she broke Sabalenka to love to open the third.
Sabalenka promptly broke back, but that proved just a speedbump as Andreeva broke again for 2-1 and didn’t face another break point.


Sabalenka to face teen Andreeva in Indian Wells final

Updated 15 March 2025
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Sabalenka to face teen Andreeva in Indian Wells final

  • The misfiring Keys finally held serve for 5-1 in the second, but minutes later Sabalenka sealed the win

INDIAN WELLS: Aryna Sabalenka avenged her Australian Open loss to Madison Keys, thrashing the American 6-0, 6-1 to book an Indian Wells title showdown with teen sensation Mirra Andreeva.

Red-hot Russian 17-year-old Andreeva showed plenty of poise in a 7-6 (7/1), 1-6, 6-3 victory over defending champion Iga Swiatek, ending the second-ranked Pole’s bid to become the first woman to win three titles in the California desert.

“I was hungry,” said Sabalenka, who had made no bones about wanting revenge after Keys denied her bid for a third straight Australian Open title in January.

“That Australian Open match was really heartbroken for me, and I really needed some time to recover after that.

“And if I would lose today again, it would get in my head and I didn’t want that to happen. I was really focused — I was just really hungry to get this win against Madison.”

Keys, who was riding a 16-match winning streak, couldn’t get a foot in the door.

Sabalenka was untroubled by the cold, swirling wind on Stadium Court as she won the first 11 games.

“I think tactically I played really great tennis,” said Sabalenka, adding her strategy was to “just keep her out of the rhythm.”

The misfiring Keys finally held serve for 5-1 in the second, but minutes later Sabalenka sealed the win and lined up a shot at the WTA tour’s newest sensation Andreeva in what 26-year-old Sabalenka quipped would be “kind of like an old mama playing against a kid.”

Andreeva beat Swiatek for the second time in as many tournaments, having stunned the Polish star in the quarter-finals at Dubai last month on the way to becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion.

Swiatek, who hadn’t dropped a set in winning 10 straight Indian Wells matches, looked supremely confident as she dropped just one point in her first three service games.

But it was Andreeva who claimed the first break of the tense first set for a 5-4 lead.

After Swiatek broke back and they reached the tiebreaker, Andreeva seized control, opening with a blistering backhand winner and pocketing the set on her first opportunity as Swiatek sent a backhand wide.

“I felt like I’m gonna go and play the tiebreak like it’s the last tiebreak of my life,” she said. “So I just went for all my shots. My serve was great. I just felt super comfortable and confident,” she said.

Swiatek put her frustrations aside and broke Andreeva to open the second set, breaking her twice more as the Russian’s errors multiplied under pressure from her opponent.

“The second set, it was a bit weird,” Andreeva said. “I just felt like she literally overplayed me, because she was playing pretty deep with good height over the net. It was really hard to do something with these shots.”

The roles reversed again, however, when Andreeva stepped up her attack and broke Swiatek to open the third, and she sealed the win with her third break of the set.

“I just decided to kind of still play the same but maybe go for my shots more, trying to play a little bit more aggressive,” she said.

“I feel also that I was dealing with the nerves and the pressure pretty good, so I just feel proud of myself.”


Alcaraz blows past Dimitrov into Indian Wells quarters, Keys battles through

Updated 13 March 2025
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Alcaraz blows past Dimitrov into Indian Wells quarters, Keys battles through

  • Britain’s Jack Draper delivered a masterclass to stun 2022 champion Taylor Fritz 7-5, 6-4
  • World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus got past an early hiccup, dropping her serve in the opening game before rolling to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over British lucky loser Sonay Kartal

INDIAN WELLS, California: Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz blew past Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-1 on Wednesday to reach the Indian Wells quarterfinals, keeping his bid for a rare three-peat on course.

The world No. 3 from Spain defied the difficult windy conditions on Stadium Court to deliver a dominant performance against a player who had won their past two encounters — including in the quarterfinals at the Miami Open last year.

Alcaraz took another step in his bid to join Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as the only men to win three straight Indian Wells titles.

Alcaraz appeared largely untroubled by the gusty winds that had ball kids scampering after blowing trash and changed the trajectories of some shots.

“Today with the conditions, it was really tough for both,” he said. “I had to survive. I always say in these conditions, you have to survive no matter what. I’m very happy that I was able to play long rallies. I got a good rhythm, even with the conditions.”

Alcaraz didn’t face a break point until the fifth game of the second set, and worked his way out of that jam with an ace on Dimitrov’s third break chance.

Alcaraz polished it off in style, giving himself a match point with his sixth ace of the match and sealing the win with a forehand winner.

He will play Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo for a place in the semifinals. Cerundolo beat world No. 10 Alex de Minaur of Australia 7-5, 6-3.

Britain’s Jack Draper delivered a masterclass to stun 2022 champion Taylor Fritz 7-5, 6-4.

Draper won seven straight games to seize a 7-5, 4-0 lead over the world number four. Fritz gave him some tense moments with a late break of serve before Draper served it out on his second opportunity.

“It is the best match I have played here so far in the three years I have been here,” Draper said.

Draper next faces Ben Shelton, who became the only American man in the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-1 victory over compatriot Brandon Nakashima.

The only US woman in the last eight is Australian Open champion Madison Keys, who battled past Donna Vekic 4-6, 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 to book a meeting with resurgent Belinda Bencic, who ousted third-ranked American Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

On the back foot early, Keys failed to convert a set point in the 10th game of the second set and was two points from defeat in the tiebreaker when Vekic took a 5-3 lead.

Keys gutted out the breaker and gave herself some breathing room when she broke the Croatian to open the third.

“At some point, I just felt like it was ‘do or die,’ probably five-all in the second-set tiebreaker,” Keys said.

“I kind of just decided that I was going to go for a little bit more, and (I’m) really happy to be able to get that match and get that win and play another match here.”

Bencic also had to rally to reach her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal since becoming a mother last year.

She dominated Gauff to avenge a fourth-round loss to the American at the Australian Open this year.

Bencic, who was unranked when she returned to the tour in October, claimed her ninth career title in Abu Dhabi last month and has risen to 58th in the world.

She said her improving fitness was a factor in her ability to best Gauff in three sets this time, when she couldn’t back in January.

“What changed is that I just kept on working also on the physical side,” Bencic said. “The body is holding up much better, almost like it was before.”

World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus got past an early hiccup, dropping her serve in the opening game before rolling to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over British lucky loser Sonay Kartal.

Sabalenka will next face 24th-ranked Russian Liudmila Samsonova, who surprised world No. 6 Jasmine Paolini of Italy 6-0, 6-4.


Medvedev tops Paul to reach quarterfinals at rainy Indian Wells

Updated 12 March 2025
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Medvedev tops Paul to reach quarterfinals at rainy Indian Wells

  • Denmark’s Holger Rune beat in-form Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4
  • Women’s defending champion Iga Swiatek had to wait out a near-hour delay before getting started, but once she did she produced another brutally efficient 6-1, 6-1 victory over Karolina Muchova

INDIAN WELLS, California: Russia’s Daniil Medvedev shook off a day of rain delays to beat Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-0 on Tuesday and reach the quarterfinals at Indian Wells, where he’s vying to improve on runner-up finishes the past two years.

Taking the court around 10:00 pm, four hours after he was slated to open the night session on Stadium Court, Medvedev took full advantage of Paul’s 31 unforced errors.

“It wasn’t an easy preparation,” Medvedev said. “We both were here early and then rain, rain, rain. I think we both went in rusty, he a little bit more than I did.”

Paul had his opportunities, rallying after Medvedev jumped to a 4-0 lead to win four straight games.

But Medvedev won the next eight — pocketing the first set on a pair of Paul forehand errors then racing through the second to seal it with one final break of the American’s serve.

“Pretty strange score,” Medvedev said. “Whoever won some games won them in a row.”

Medvedev, who fell to Carlos Alcaraz in each of the last two finals, next faces France’s Arthur Fils, a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 winner over American Marcos Giron in a match halted for more than three hours by rain in the first set.

Women’s defending champion Iga Swiatek had to wait out a near-hour delay before getting started, but once she did she produced another brutally efficient 6-1, 6-1 victory over Karolina Muchova, beating the worst of the weather.

The world No. 2 from Poland needed just 57 minutes to put away Muchova, who took her to three sets in the 2023 French Open final.

Swiatek, the 2022 and 2024 winner, didn’t face a break point as she continued her bid to become the first woman to win three titles in the California desert.

She said the weather was an extra spur to finish it quickly, especially after the rain came again near the end of the contest.

“On last two games it was a bit slippery already, but I really wanted to finish. So I kind of played more risky, but the shots were still in,” said Swiatek, who will face China’s Zheng Qinwen for a place in the semifinals.

Zheng rolled past Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-3, 6-2.

The off-and-on showers caused multiple delays.

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, ranked 23rd, shrugged off the three-hour stoppage at the start of her third set to upset world No. 4 Jessica Pegula 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

“Definitely was not easy with all the conditions and the rain, stop and start,” Svitolina said. “Warmed up maybe like 10 times today.”

Svitolina booked a meeting with 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva, who beat 2023 Indian Wells champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-2.

Andreeva has now won two matches in three weeks against world number seven Rybakina — a former Wimbledon champion. She beat Rybakina in the semifinals in Dubai on the way to becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion.

In other men’s matches, Denmark’s Holger Rune beat in-form Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4.

Greece’s Tsitsipas was coming off his first title in nearly a year in Dubai last month, but Rune, ranked 13th, snapped the world No. 9’s seven-match ATP win streak with an aggressive game that included 22 winners.

Up 4-3 in the second set, Rune saved a break point with a dazzling between-the-legs shot, racing back to the baseline after a Tsitsipas lob and batting the tweener that dropped perfectly to deny the Greek.

“Mentally, I was very, very good,” Rune said. “I think that’s what made the difference — how composed I was able to stay.”

Rune next faces 43rd-ranked Tallon Griekspoor, who upset top seed Alexander Zverev in the second round.

Griekspoor also made a belated start and waited out a second-set delay in his 7-6 (7/4) 6-1 victory over Japanese qualifier Yosuke Watanuki.