The 2018 Qatar ExxonMobil Open represents the starting gate for the new tennis season. One specific entrant in this tournament will be the subject of intense scrutiny. There aren’t many big brand names at this event. However, Dominic Thiem is one of the headliners. With the Australian Open coming up, he’s going to want to have a good showing here to gain some momentum. If he struggles, he’s going to be a player that we’re going to avoid for betting purposes at the 2018 Aussie Open.
The competition in the 32-player main draw begins on Monday, January 1.
Event Details
Event: Qatar ExxonMobil Open
Category: ATP 250 Series
Date: January 1-6, 2018
Location: Khalifa International Tennis Complex – Doha, Qatar
The 2018 Qatar Open is one of a few warm-up events for the upcoming Australian Open. Players aren’t entering this tournament in a state of fatigue or soreness. They’re rested and coming off vacations blended with training blocks. There’s never a time of the season when more players are fresher and able to run the way they hope to. The grind of the tour will set in soon enough in February and March.
With a prize money allotment of $1.286 million, this is a very generous purse for an ATP 250 event. Many other 250s won’t come anywhere close to this kind of prize money. The events in India and Australia this week on the ATP Tour fetch less than half of this pursue (no greater than $502,000). Doha’s money is one lure for the best players in the world before going to Australia.
Points:
Champion – 250
Runner-up – 150
Semifinal – 90
Quarterfinal – 45
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2017: Novak Djokovic def. Andy Murray 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
2016: Novak Djokovic d. Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-2
2015: David Ferrer d. Tomas Berdych 6-4, 7-5
2014: Rafael Nadal d. Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-7(5-7), 6-2
2013: Richard Gasquet d. Nikolay Davydenko 3-6, 7-6(7-4), 6-3
Player Info:
Dominic Thiem is the top seed here, but this is a hardcourt event, and Thiem has been lost on hardcourts for some time. This will be the first test of what he has done in the offseason to improve his hardcourt game. No one disputes Thiem’s quality on clay, but hardcourt is the surface he has to figure out in order to climb to the next level as a professional.
Pablo Carreno Busta had his best season ever in 2017, reaching the U.S. Open semifinals and rising high enough to be the first alternate for the ATP Finals in London. He played two matches in that event when Rafael Nadal had to withdraw. Carreno Busta has a chance in these early months of the 2018 season to make use of a higher seed and pounce on favorable draws. This is his first chance to grow even more as a player.
Novak Djokovic is the third seed and the main story of this tournament. He had to pull out of the Abu Dhabi exhibition event, a worrisome sign just two weeks ahead of the Australian Open. This puts his Doha participation in greater doubt, and even if he does play, it makes it harder to determine if he will be healthy enough to be anything near his best level. Djokovic probably needs at least two matches if not three to think he will enter Melbourne with sufficient match preparation. If he is not healthy enough, he will not get enough information to be confident about his prospects in Australia.
Seventh seed Filip Krajinovic is a very intriguing mystery player. He made the Paris Masters (Bercy) final before losing to Jack Sock in three sets. Just how much of an indicator was that result? Did it show that he is ready to make a push to the top 20, or was it a tease and an aberration? Not much is expected of him here but a nice showing here would give him some momentum going into the Aussie Open.
Khalifa International Tennis Complex
The Khalifa International Tennis Complex opened in 1992 and expanded in 2008. The facility has 27 courts with a stadium court seating just over 4,100 people. It has hosted the year-end WTA Tour Championship earlier this century.
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