Dominic Thiem (Twitter)
Day 4 of the first-ever World Tennis League in Dubai will see two exciting teams – the Kites and the Hawks taking each other on.
Each team will have a maximum of four players competing in a match. The mixed-gender exhibition tournament that is being held in the Middle East in Dubai will see each match being decided after the result of best-of-three contests involving one singles men’s match, one singles women’s match, and one mixed doubles match. There will be a 10-point tiebreak for the third set.
| Kites | Hawks |
| Felix Auger-Aliassime | Alexander Zverev |
| Iga Swiatek | Anett Kontaveit |
| Holger Rune | Elena Rybakina |
| Sania Mirza | Dominic Thiem |
| Eugenie Bouchard | – |
All four players specialize in singles competitions and are seldom seen playing doubles. Eugenie Bouchard and Elena Rybakina have the experience of playing mixed doubles events at Grand Slams.
Alexander Zverev has made a comeback after recovering from an ankle injury that prematurely ended his season in 2022. Zverev has won 57 doubles matches and lost 62 (at the ATP Tour, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup). He reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 68 on 18 March 2019. Zverev made it to the quarterfinals in the 2020 Olympic games in the doubles event.
Elena Rybakina rose to fame with a sensational run in this year’s Wimbledon as she went on to win the singles event. She made it to the first round at the mixed doubles event in the 2021 Australian Open. The Kazakhstani No. 1 played her last doubles match on the tour at the Silicon Valley Classic. She teamed with Amina Anshba and the duo lost to Demi Schuurs and Desirae Krawczyk in the round of 16.
Eugenie Bouchard is the most experienced player going into this match. She is also on her road to resurgence as she returned to the court earlier this year after undergoing shoulder surgery in 2021. Bouchard has the experience of playing mixed doubles in three out of the four Grand Slams. Her best result came in the 2015 US Open when she reached the second round alongside Nick Kyrgios. Bouchard teamed with Holger Rune in their first match against the Eagles and lost to Nick Kyrgios and Bianca Andreescu.
Felix Auger-Aliassime is the only player who is in red-hot form going into this match. However, the 22-year-old has very little experience in playing doubles tennis, let alone mixed doubles. The 2022 Davis Cup winner has just one doubles title under his belt and reached a career-high ranking of world No. 60 on 1 November 2021. He got off to a good start in his first match at the World Tennis League as he defeated Nick Kyrgios in singles competition.
This promises to be an exciting clash. However, Anett Kontaveit will have to bring her A-game against the current world No. 1 as the margin for error will be very little.
Iga Swiatek has been in a league of her own. She amassed 8 titles during the season and consolidated her position at the top of the WTA rankings. In her first match at the World Tennis League, Swiatek made light work of the in-form Caroline Garcia and defeated the French veteran in straight sets.
Anett Kontaveit won 29 matches during the year and lost 16. She won a solitary title at the St. Petersburg Open. After suffering a back injury, Kontaveit announced an end to her season after the Ostrava Open. She is back now and will look to get back into the groove.
This will be a contest between experience and youth. Thiem returned to action this year following recovery from a wrist injury while Rune played some scintillating tennis towards the latter half of the year.
Dominic Thiem took time to get back to his old self. While he is still not fully there, his semi-final runs in the Gijon Open and the European Open would have surely given the 2020 US Open champion a lot of confidence.
The 19-year-old Danish player had a phenomenal year as he won two titles and reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time at the French Open. He also made his way into the top 10 in the ATP rankings. At the Paris Masters final, Rune came back from a set down to defeat the mighty Novak Djokovic.
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