The draw has been released for Atp Dubai 2017 (Duty Free Tennis Championships) and many fans will be interested in finding out where Roger Federer's name has fallen. The Australian Open 2017 champion is seeded third in the 500-series event, his first tournament since winning the title at Melbourne Park earlier this calendar year. Federer certainly doesn't have that bad of an early-round draw, however he does share a path to the final with top-seeded Andy Murray.
Federer shares semifinal draw with Pouille
In this first round, Federer will play Benoit Paire of France.
Paire is still ranked 41st in the world, but he has slumped of late when compared to how well he played in the latter half of 2015. Federer will certainly have to be careful, but the Swiss Maestro should enter the match as the heavy favorite.
Looking ahead in the draw, in the second round Federer would either play Mikhail Youzhny or a qualifier. The seeded player nearest to Federer is Lucas Pouile of France. The Frenchman is in fact playing very good tennis at the moment as he is into the ATP Marseille final on Sunday. However, Pouille should be fatigued for the Dubai draw having played competitive tennis all the last week. Don't be surprised if he is replaced by a lucky loser from the qualifying draw or if Pouille loses early in Dubai.
All and all, Federer's draw through the first three rounds looks very favorable.
If a Federer/Murray semifinal takes place then it would be an interesting match. It's the match that tennis fans were looking forward to at Melbourne Park before Mischa Zverev defeated the Scot in the fourth round. Dubai is our first glimpse at Murray since the Aussie and we'll find out if the loss to the German was a sign of things to come for a bit or just single blip.
Bottom half's contenders in Dubai
The bottom of the draw is a tad lighter than the top. Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka are the projected semifinalists if you go by seeding. Monfils certainly didn't look that great in Marseille, losing to Richard Gasquet in that tournament's quarterfinals on Friday. Tomas Berdych and late-entry Roberto Bautista-Agut loom large in the bottom half as potential semifinalists.
The final for the 500-series event will be played on March 4th. The indoor hard-court tournament offers 500 ranking points to the winner and it is an important lead-up event to the more important Masters Series tournaments that are coming up soon in Indian Wells and Miami.