[Poiree]

Dubai 2009 Preview

After an unpredictable, exciting and a bit longer than expected start of the 2009 GMT season at the Australian Open, the tour is moving west to Dubai, the place where the game's first season officially began one year ago.

Even though last year's champion Tzar is now retired and won't be coming to Dubai to defend his title, the field is very strong. Almost all of GMT's top players have commited to play the event and absolutely no one can predict the winner. Just a week after taking her first title of the year in Melbourne, last year's runner-up Poiree is looking to continue her GMT winning streak in the Middle East. That will not be an easy task at all as there are many serious contenders for the title standing in her way. World number 2 Heart is making her Dubai debut this year. After making the final at the Australian Open and beating the 2nd seed on the way, she showed that she will be the one to beat this season. Also trying to capture the Dubai title for the first time is the Graphics Maker of the Year 2008, Niya. After her quarter-final loss Down Under she will be looking to justify her GMT reputation and win her first singles title of the season. Only by looking at the tournament line-up it becomes obvious that we will have a few interesting first round match-ups. The Australian Open saw a surprise first round exit for 2nd seed Droolv. which means he won't be seeded in the Emirates and might face one of the top seeds early in the tournament. Also unseed is Andreas, last year's US Open champion and semi-finalist at the YEC.

Unexpectedly the Dubai tournament will host a doubles event, too. Although the GMT board planned doubles only for the Grand Slams the great interest of the players convinced the organizers that a doubles event in Dubai is a good idea to promote the game, give the players some extra training and a chance to get to know each other better. The hot favourites for taking the title here are Heart and Niya. They cruised through all their matches in Melbourne and won their first doubles title as a team. Their main rivals in Dubai will be the Graphics Makers of the Year, team Шована.

Dubai is promising a lot of exciting and unpredictable matches throughout the tournament, but only once the players arrive to the Arabian Peninsula and hit the courts, it will become clear how they all dealt with the jet lag and exhaustion after the first Grand Slam of the season.

by Poiree