WHTV: Djokovic defence in Dubai as Federer withdraws
Top seed Roger Federer has pulled out of this week’s William Hill TV streamed Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship, the ATP Dubai Open.
The two-million-dollar ATP Dubai Open will feature five of the world’s ‘Top 10′ including defending champion Novak Djokovic.
Andy Murray, Marin Cilic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nikolay Davydenko will also be in action, but will compete without four-time former champion Federer due to a lung infection, said Dubai officials on Sunday.
“He has got a lung infection,” said ATP circuit official Stephen Duckett. “He saw a doctor and he was advised not to play for a fortnight.”
Spain’s Tommy Robredo will now take Federer’s place and will face France’s Julien Benneteau in the first round.
The complete line-up for the 2010 ATP Dubai Open which will be featured LIVE on William Hill TV looks like this.
| Player | Nationality | Rank |
| Novak Djokovic | SRB | 2 |
| Andy Murray | GBR | 4 |
| Nikolay Davydenko | RUS | 6 |
| Jo-Wilfried Tsonga | USA | 9 |
| Marin Cilic | CRO | 10 |
| Mikhail Youzhny | RUS | 15 |
| Gilles Simon | FRA | 16 |
| Tommy Robredo | ESP | 17 |
| Ivan Ljubicic | CRO | 24 |
| Jurgen Melzer | AUT | 29 |
| Feliciano Lopez | ESP | 34 |
| Viktor Troicki | SRB | 35 |
| Marcos Baghdatis | CYP | 36 |
| Janko Tipsarevic | SRB | 37 |
| Julien Benneteau | FRA | 39 |
| Andreas Seppi | ITA | 46 |
| Gillermo Garcia-Lopez | ESP | 47 |
| Marco Chiudinell | SUI | 53 |
| Michael Berrer | GER | 56 |
| Florent Serra | FRA | 59 |
| Arnoud Clement | FRA | 62 |
| Lukas Lacko | SVK | 66 |
| Sergiv Stakhovsky | UKR | 69 |
| Michael Llodra | FRA | 79 |
| Rainer Schuettler | FRA | 89+ |
| Igor Kunitsyn | RUS | 90# |
| Simone Bolelli | ITA | 110 |
| Bjorn Phau | GER | 124# |
| Stefan Koubek | AUT | 128# |
| Jan Hernych | CZE | 137* |
| Somdev Devvarman | IND | 141# |
| Mohammad Ghareeb | ITA | 513+ |
Rankings as of February 15th 2010.
+ Wild card entry
# Qualifier
* Lucky loser
