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World Tennis Championship

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Mubadala World Tennis Championship
Tournament information
Founded2009; 15 years ago (2009)
LocationAbu Dhabi
United Arab Emirates
VenueAbu Dhabi International Tennis Complex
CategoryExhibition
SurfaceHard
Draw6S (Men); 2S (Women) (exhibition)
Current championStefanos Tsitsipas
Websitemubadalawtc.com

The Mubadala World Tennis Championship is a men's and women's singles exhibition tournament. It has been held annually since 2009 at the Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

History

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First logo of the World Championship Tennis

In November 2008, sponsor companies Flash and Capitala announced with IMG their partnership to create a new tennis exhibition for the beginning of the season, to take place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The event, first named Capitala World Tennis Championship, was conceived to promote the sport in the region, creating another world class tennis event in the Middle East alongside the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Dubai Tennis Championships, already taking place in the UAE, the ATP Qatar ExxonMobil Open and the WTA Qatar Total Open, taking place in Doha, Qatar, and the WTA Tour Championships, also set in Doha from 2008 to 2010. The six-player, three-day exhibition, with a winner-takes-all prize money of US$250,000, preceded by weeks of tennis-themed activities in the region, including an amateur Community Cup tournament in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, was created to take place early in the season, before the start of the actual tour events, as a warm-up exhibition for the top players, similar to the AAMI Classic in Melbourne.[1]

The inaugural Capitala World Tennis Championship took place from January 1 to January 3, 2009, with Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick and James Blake taking part.[1] Murray won the event, defeating Blake, Federer, and then-World No. 1 Nadal in the final.[2]

As of October 2009, Federer, Nadal and Davydenko announced they would return for the 2010 edition, with Stanislas Wawrinka, David Ferrer and Robin Söderling completing the field. Nadal went one further this time, defeating compatriot Ferrer in the semi-finals and Söderling in the final without losing a set. Federer won third place with victory over Ferrer.

For the 2011 edition of the tournament, Nadal, Federer and Söderling returned with Tomáš Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Marcos Baghdatis completing the six-man line-up. Nadal defended the title with a hard-fought victory over Federer after they respectively beat Berdych and Söderling in the semi-finals.

The second 2011 edition (held on December 29–31, 2011) featured Nadal, Federer, Ferrer, Tsonga, Novak Djokovic and Gaël Monfils. Djokovic won the title by beating Monfils and Federer before defeating Ferrer in the final. In the battle for third place, Nadal triumphed over Federer.

On December 30, 2017, Jeļena Ostapenko defeated Serena Williams in the first-ever women's match at the tournament.[3]

Past finals

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Men's singles

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Year Champions Runners-up Score
2009 United Kingdom Andy Murray Spain Rafael Nadal 6–4, 5–7, 6–3
2010 Spain Rafael Nadal Sweden Robin Söderling 7–6(7–3), 7–5
2011 (Jan.) Spain Rafael Nadal (2) Switzerland Roger Federer 7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–3)
2011 (Dec.) Serbia Novak Djokovic Spain David Ferrer 6–2, 6–1
2012 Serbia Novak Djokovic (2) Spain Nicolás Almagro 6–7(4–7), 6–3, 6–4
2013 Serbia Novak Djokovic (3) Spain David Ferrer 7–5, 6–2
2015 United Kingdom Andy Murray (2) Serbia Novak Djokovic (walkover)
2016 (Jan.) Spain Rafael Nadal (3) Canada Milos Raonic 7–6(7–2), 6–3
2016 (Dec.) Spain Rafael Nadal (4) Belgium David Goffin 6–4, 7–6(7–5)
2017 South Africa Kevin Anderson Spain Roberto Bautista Agut 6–4, 7–6(7–0)
2018 Serbia Novak Djokovic (4) South Africa Kevin Anderson 4–6, 7–5, 7–5
2019 Spain Rafael Nadal (5) Greece Stefanos Tsitsipas 6–7(3–7), 7–5, 7–6(7–3)
2020 Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic[4]
2021 Russia Andrey Rublev United Kingdom Andy Murray 6–4, 7–6(7–2)
2022 Greece Stefanos Tsitsipas Russia Andrey Rublev 6–2, 4–6, 6–2

Women's singles

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Year Champions Runners-up Score
2017 Latvia Jeļena Ostapenko United States Serena Williams 6–2, 3–6, [10–5]
2018 United States Venus Williams United States Serena Williams 4–6, 6–3, [10–8]
2019 Russia Maria Sharapova Australia Ajla Tomljanović 6–4, 7–5
2020 Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021 Tunisia Ons Jabeur Switzerland Belinda Bencic 4–6, 6–3, [10–8]
2022 Tunisia Ons Jabeur United Kingdom Emma Raducanu 5–7, 6–3, [10–8]

Records

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Men's singles

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Most titles Spain Rafael Nadal 5
Most finals Spain Rafael Nadal 6
Most consecutive titles Serbia Novak Djokovic 3
Most matches played Spain Rafael Nadal 22
Most matches won Spain Rafael Nadal 15
Most editions played Spain Rafael Nadal 11
Best winning % Serbia Novak Djokovic 92%
Youngest champion United Kingdom Andy Murray 21y, 7m, 23d
Oldest champion Spain Rafael Nadal 33y, 6m, 21d
Longest final
2019 (38 games)
Spain Rafael Nadal 63 7 77
Greece Stefanos Tsitsipas 77 5 63
Shortest final
2011 (15 games)
Serbia Novak Djokovic 6 6
Spain David Ferrer 2 1

References

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  1. ^ a b "Flash, IMG and Capitala launch Abu Dhabi's first international tennis tournament". ameinfo.com. 2008-11-11. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  2. ^ "Murray battles to win over Nadal". BBC Sport. 2009-01-03. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  3. ^ "Serena says good to be back, despite loss to Ostapenko in Abu Dhabi" Yahoo! Sports; retrieved January 7, 2018
  4. ^ Mubadala World Tennis Championship [@MubadalaWTC] (16 December 2020). "Tournament owners Flash Entertainment have made the difficult decision to not host the 2020 edition of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship after consultation with stakeholders and tennis governing bodies. The decision is a result of scheduling challenges in the tennis calendar of events due to the international response to COVID-19. The safety and wellbeing of our guests, players, officials, and spectators always comes first and we look forward to welcoming the Championship back in 2021" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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