ATP500 Dubai (14-21 March) 2021

[PKBasu]

Prajnesh Gunneswaran and PR-Yuki Bhambri have made it into the qualifying draw for the Dubai ATP, and Ramkumar is 11th on the alternates list for qualifying. Just one main draw wildcard has been given so far -- to Mohamed Safwat of Egypt, a guy who has a lot of history with Prajnesh (losing to him in the Kunming Challenger final, then pipping him to the FO main draw LL spot, because Safwat was ranked one slot above Prajnesh; infact, PG has beaten Safwat on all the subsequent 3 times they have played each other). There are 2 more wildcards to hand out to the main draw, and I think either Prajnesh or Yuki HAVE to get one of those (if not both!).

Additionally, there should be Indian representation in the Doubles too -- with the Bopanna/Qureshi pair likely beginning their comeback in Dubai (as wildcards, I hope, since they surprisingly haven't entered the draw).

Roger Federer, eight times winner of the Dubai singles title, will be the second seed, having just started his comeback from a 13-month injury break with a hard-fought 3-set win over Dan Evans, the British #1, at the Qatar Open in Doha.

[Dinesh]

Bopanna/Qureshi have entered at Acapulco, not Dubai since their combined ranking is 84 and the main draw cut-off at Dubai is 64. So, this thread will be for Yuki and Prajnesh.

[RohitG]

Hoping that Ram gets a Qualifying WC at least. What about Sumit? I know he's in Germany but Dubai is well connected by flights to Europe and is only 3 hours ahead in time difference. Maybe he can get a qualies wc if not a main draw one. Currently he's the in form Indian player. Of course I don't know how this WC process works, but if at all a main draw WC is available for Indian players, it's between him and Prajnesh. I expect Jaziri too to join Safwat in the main draw, as he's from the MENA region.

[sameerph]

Sumit had originally entered Chile challenger in next week but later withdrew. But since he was in the original entry list there as per rules he cannot now get entry into Dubai.

There are 4 wild cards available for Dubai of which is 1 is given. I hope Prajnesh will get 1 of the others. I think Yuki is better off playing qualies.

[PKBasu]

Sumit shouldn't waste any of the clay-court weeks playing on any other surface! He is in Europe now, and will hopefully pick one clay-court tournament after another to show his wares.

[sameerph]

RamK too has got into Dubai qualies draw now. Prajnesh as of now is likely to be 6th seed in qualies. But, still waiting to see if one of Prajnesh, Yuki or RamK get a main draw wild card.

[Dinesh]

Draw is out and Yuki plays Prajnesh, Ramk plays Donskoy and the winner of both matches face each other for a spot in the main draw.

[Sanjay]

Ugh.

[Rajiv]

A very strange draw.. ..ensures only 1 Indian if at all, makes it to the Main Draw....

Prajnesh & Yuki square off in the opening round, while Ram against 6th seeded Donskoy.
And should Ram win , faces the winner of Yuki/Praj tie for a place in the MD

[Rajiv]

Ram v Donskoy 1 all H2H, but the last time these 2 met was about 4 months ago in Eckental where Ram prevailed 2 & 1.

Yuki leads Praj 2 nil, but those wins were before Tianjin DC, when Praj was Future's level, But now he( Praj )is in a different class, coupled with Yuki's lack of match play,Praj should tip the finishing line.

[sameerph]

Wretched draw for us, One positive way of looking at it is if one of them can beat Donskoy in Q1 or Q2, we will have a guranteed Indian in main draw.

Lets go RamK, beat Donskoy and let the best man win than and make the main draw.

[arjun2761]

Yes, we are at least guaranteed one spot in Q2. If RamK wins, then we will be guaranteed one spot in the main draw!

[RohitG]

Are these matches available on TennisTV?

[RohitG]

Where can we get the matches? Stream? channel?

[Rajiv]

Rohit try Joker stream.. it usually works..

also there is one more , saw the Doha matches on that.. https://en5.sportplus.live/tennis/atp-d ... g/1415982/