Roger Federer was idle on Tuesday in the ATP Dubai 2017 draw following his opening-round win on Monday over France's Benoit Paire. However, while the Swiss Maestro was not playing on Tuesday he still learned who his next opponent will be in the Duty Free Tennis Championships, a 500-level tournament on the ATP Tour. Evgeny Donskoy of Russia defeated Mikhail Youzhny for the right to advance to face Federer in the 2nd round on Wednesday.
Match will be first meeting between two
Roger Federer and Evgeny Donskoy are yet to meet on tour and their upcoming match will be their first-ever meeting.
The Order of Play for Wednesday makes it the last match of the day to be played on Centre Court, following Andy Murray's second-round match against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Donskoy, who is 26-years-old, simply doesn't beat the top players while GGL hasn't been playing that well of late. Accordingly, a Federer/Murray semifinal in Dubai still appears to be in the cards as one looks at the round-two match-ups.
Wawrinka crashed out
But while Federer and Murray aim for the semifinals and final at the Duty Free Tennis Championshipi, the No. 2 seed at the event is out of the tournament. Stan Wawrinka crashed out and only to Dazim Dzumhur in the first round on Tuesday, losing in straight sets nonetheless.
The result means that the draw is more open for players on the bottom half of it to make the Dubai final. Tomas Berdych, Gael Monfils, and Roberto Bautista-Agut are all into the second round. With Wawrinka out, it's likely that one of them will advance to the final now as they are the next highest-seeded players after the Swiss.
Other results on Tuesday saw Daniil Medvedev continue to play strong tennis as he advanced in straight sets over Omar Alawadhi. Lucas Pouille rebounded after his loss in the Marseille final, defeating Adam Pavlasek 6-2, 6-2. Fernando Verdasco, Daniel Evans, and Robin Haase also advanced to the second round, none of them particularly troubled with their first-round matches.
