{"id":152127,"date":"2022-02-19T11:04:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T10:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=152127"},"modified":"2022-02-20T16:47:35","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T15:47:35","slug":"novak-returns-to-action-in-dubai-faces-musetti-in-round-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-returns-to-action-in-dubai-faces-musetti-in-round-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak returns to action in Dubai, faces Musetti in Round 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Five-time former champion and world no.1 Novak Djokovic returns to action next week in Dubai where he won the ATP 500 event in 2009-11, 2013 and 2020.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The tournament that celebrates its 30th anniversary takes place at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre (February 21-26).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Novak will open his <a href=\"https:\/\/dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships<\/a> campaign against world no.57, Italian Lorenzo Musetti (WC, 1-0 H2H), in his first match of the 2022 season.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The top-seeded Serbian star could meet either Karen Khachanov (RUS) or Alex de Minaur (AUS) in the <strong>second round<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>His possible opponents in the later stages of the tournament are:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quarter-finals<\/strong>: Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP, 8), Marin Cilic (CRO)<br \/>\n<strong>Semi-finals<\/strong>: Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN, 3), Denis Shapovalov (CAN, 6)<br \/>\n<strong>Finals<\/strong>: Andrey Rublev (RUS, 2), Jannik Sinner (ITA, 4), Hubert Hurkacz (POL, 5), Aslan Karatsev (RUS, 7)<\/p>\n<p>Novak is making his 12th appearance (41-6 record), aiming for his sixth crown.<\/p>\n<p>He did not take part in the tournament in 2021.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: Profimedia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nole will be bidding for a sixth crown at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (2009-11, 2013, 2020). The tournament celebrates its 30th anniversary.<br \/>\nThe top seed faces world no.57, Italian Lorenzo Musetti (WC, 1-0 H2H), in what will be his first match of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":152118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012179,118,101012197,101012429,101012199],"class_list":["post-152127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-500-en","tag-draw","tag-dubai-en","tag-dubai-duty-free-tennis-championships-en","tag-uae-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152127"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152141,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152127\/revisions\/152141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}