The six male players competing at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship (MWTC) 2019 will be battling for a winner-takes-all $250,000 (Dh918,000) prize this weekend.
This year's tournament is headlined by the two best players on the planet, top-ranked Rafael Nadal and defending champion Novak Djokovic - the world No 2.
Both players have won a joint-record four MWTC titles, so should they meet in Saturday’s final, a piece of tournament history will be up for grabs.
The challenge to deny Nadal and Djokovic a fifth title will be led by world No 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who ended his 2019 season by winning the ATP Finals in London. The 21-year-old Greek beat both Nadal and Djokovic last season, his win over the Spaniard all the more impressive as it came on the clay at the Madrid Masters.
Also aiming to make their mark on the Abu Dhabi tournament are world No 17 Karen Khachanov, world No 23 Andrey Rublev, and former world No 19 Chung Hyeon.
As the top two seeds, Nadal and Djokovic have received byes to Friday's semi-finals. Djokovic awaits the winner of the Tsitsipas v Rublev quarter-final, while Nadal will play either Khachanov or Chung.
The women’s match, on Thursday, will be contested by former world No 1 Maria Sharapova and Australian No 2 Ajla Tomljanovic.
While only the tournament champion will receive prize money, each player would have negotiated their own undisclosed appearance fees.
