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12/23/08 11:53 PM | David Cox
Doha have announced their 3 wildcards for the Qatar ExxonMobil Open which begins on January 5th with Tommy Haas and Gael Monfils, two high-profile recipients.
Monfils is quite lucky having meant to play Brisbane but carelessly missed the entry deadline. He finished the year at a career high of no 14 after reaching the Vienna final and the quarters in Madrid, a sign that the 22 year old is starting to realise the full potential of his awesome talent. It shows just what a season it was for French tennis that this rise went unnoticed amongst the spectacular successes of Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Monfils was a finalist in Doha back in 2006, losing 6-3, 7-6 to Roger Federer that time.
Haas is once again on the comeback trail from injury with the latest mishap seeing him fall to 82 in the world. 2008 started very promisingly for the 30 year old and he beat Andy Murray in Indian Wells but his season went steadily downhill from there. He's only once competed in this season opener in the Middle East. He made it past Wawrinka, Henman and Youzhny to reach the semis in 2006 but suffered a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to Federer there, the same man who stopped him in 5 two weeks later at the Aussie Open.
The final wildcard has gone to local prospect Abdulla al-Haji, a player who's never played a match on the pro tour. Qatar Tennis Federation chief Nasser al-Kholaifi said "Abdulla is a promising player and we thought it would be a good idea to give him a wildcard so that he gets some good experience playing in a top tournament."
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i love to see up-and-coming players being given a chance to get some much-needed on-the-job training. every player has to start somewhere! good luck to Abdulla!
memi , 12/24/08 3:47 PM