Doha: The Qatar Tennis Federation announced a stellar field of participants for the upcoming Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2016 with World No 1 Serbia’s Novak Djokovic being in the lead. For the 24th consecutive year, Doha will be the starting point for 32 players on the ATP World Tour as they begin their 2016 season.
Djokovic is returning to Doha after a 2015 season that saw him win 11 titles in many events including US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon. This is Djokovic second appearance in the Qatari capital.
Spain’s Rafael Nadal, the world No 5, who in 2015 won three titles to his name (Hamburg, Stuttgart and Buenos Aires), will also be in town. Will Nadal clinch his second Doha title and kick off an outstanding season?
Tomas Berdych, world No 6, from Czech Republic, is making his third appearance at this year’s event. The winner of 12 singles career titles, he won 2 titles in 2015 – Stockholm and Shenzhen.
Defending Champion and World No 7 Spaniard David Ferrer makes a return to Doha to see if he can win another Doha title. David has won five titles in 2015 – in Vienna, Kuala Lumpur, Acapulco, Rio de Janeiro in addition to Doha.
World No 9 Richard Gasquet of France returns to Doha to try clinching his second title here. Gasquet won two titles in 2015, in Estoril and Montpellier.
Tournament Director, Karim Alami, said of this year’s field, “We are incredibly honored to have another year with players of the highest caliber coming to the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. The week in Doha kicks off the ATP World Tour season and these players are looking to hit the courts fresh from their end of season break. Novak returns to Doha as world No. 1 for second consecutive year, Rafael Nadal is looking to win his second Doha title, Ferrer will try to defend his title from last year.”
The rest of the field is who’s who of well-known names like Feliciano Lopez, Andreas Seppi, Leonardo Mayer and fan’s favorite Fernando Verdasco.
The Peninsula
