DOHA (Qatar): The 2021 Qatar ExxonMobil Open will be played from 8-13 March, the ATP has said on Tuesday while announcing a revised schedule for weeks 8-13 of the 2021 ATP Tour season.
The Qatar ExxonMobil Open, one of two ATP Tour events held in the Middle East, has been selected by players as the ATP 250 Tournament of the Year on three occasions (2015, ’17, ’19).
Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have won multiple titles at this event, with Nadal’s haul including the 2014 singles title and four doubles crowns (2005, ’09, ’11 and ’15).
Djokovic won back-to-back titles in 2016 and ’17.
Russian Andrey Rublev won the title last year while Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain finished on top in 2019.
Qatar incidentally will also host the qualifying rounds of the Australia Open men’s section, from January 10 to 13 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
The event will feature 128 players out of which 16 will advance into the main rounds of the season-opening Grand Slam scheduled for February 8-21 in Melbourne.
The Australian Open, originally scheduled to start on January 18, had already been pushed back to February 8-21 in a reconfigured schedule for the first seven weeks of 2021 released on December 17.
The event in Doha will give qualifiers time to travel to Australia and complete two weeks of quarantine before the warm-up events start on January 31, the ATP said.
Tennis continues its return during the COVID-19 pandemic following the announcement of a reconfigured schedule for the first seven weeks earlier this month.
On Tuesday, the ATP said that the Australian Open, the men’s tour would be followed by European indoor events and swings through Latin American and the Middle East leading up to the Miami Open, a Masters event, in the final two weeks of March.
