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2/22/09 11:47 PM | Ricky Dimon
The Barclays Tennis Championships is all set to go starting on Monday. However, the tournament is missing plenty of star players as a result of either injuries or the Dubai controversy.
The show must go on.
At least it will next week at the Barclays Tennis Championships despite much controversy. The Dubai event has not even started and it is already suffering from backlash and player injuries. Last week, Israeli Shahar Peer was denied entry into the women's event, sparking the drama. Andy Roddick recent pulled out of the tournament citing his disagreement with the issue.
Also out of Dubai are Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, and Fernando Verdasco. All four of those players cited physical problems as their reasons for withdrawing.
Nonetheless, the ATP 500 tournament will progress as scheduled and the field is actually still an impressive one despite all of the carnage. Both Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the third and fourth-ranked men in the world, are in Dubai. So too are Top 20 players Gilles Simon, David Ferrer, and Marin Cilic.
Other big names in the draw include Ivo Karlovic, Richard Gasquet, Marat Safin, and 2008 runner-up Feliciano Lopez. Safin, who got a wildcard into the tournament and is seeded eighth, will meet in the first round.
Cilic, who takes on Janko Tipsarevic in his opener, is on a quarterfinal collision course with Djokovic. Other potential quarterfinal matchups are Simon vs. Karlovic, Andreev vs. Ferrer, and either Safin or Gasquet vs. Murray.
The fourth-ranked Scot stunned Federer in the Dubai first round last year before falling to Davydenko in the quarterfinals. Unseeded in the 2008 event, Murray is heavily favored to win the title this time around.
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