Top men won’t play at Dubai

Sun., Feb. 22, 2009

Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The Dubai Tennis Championships will start next week without five of the top seven men’s players scheduled to compete, mostly because of injuries.

Top-ranked Rafael Nadal (knee) and second-ranked Roger Federer (back) withdrew earlier this week. The tournament has since lost defending champion Andy Roddick of the United States, No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko (undisclosed injury) and No. 9 Fernando Verdasco (ankle).

That leaves No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia and No. 4 Andy Murray of Britain as the top two seeds in the draw announced Saturday for the $2 million tournament.

Roddick said Friday he won’t attend because he doesn’t agree with the United Arab Emirates’ decision to deny Israeli Shahar Peer a visa to play in the women’s tournament this week. But Dubai tournament officials said since Roddick is in today’s final in Memphis, Tenn., it would be impossible for him to arrive in Dubai for his expected opening-round match on Monday.

Israeli player Andy Ram was granted a visa for the tournament on Thursday. Peer was denied entry into the country a week ago.

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Top men won’t play at Dubai

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