Dubai: Four-time Grand Slam winner Jim Courier looks like the best bet for the title when the Legends Rock Dubai gets under way at the Dubai Tennis Stadium from today.
The annual event - now a part of Courier's 'Outback Champions Series' - involves eight of the best former tennis players.
The Dubai tournament - only the second competition to be held outside the US (the first one being the Athens tournament in May) - includes Pat Cash, Michael Stich, Paul Haarhuis, Thomas Muster, Mikael Pernfors, Cedric Pioline and Mansour Bahrami.
Former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic was scheduled to take part, but a nagging knee injury forced him to cancel his trip to Dubai.
The winner of this weekend's final will walk away with a cash prize of $50,000, while the runner-up will get $40,000.
Courier looks to be in pole position for the title in Dubai. But he will not be able to successfully defend the overall title he won at the end of last season as even a win in Dubai will not help him cross the 2,800 points accumulated by Todd Martin. Courier is in fourth place overall this season with 2,100 points. Following Martin in second is Pete Sampras and in third place is Wayne Ferreira. John McEnroe is in fifth with 1,700 points.
"The fact is that I am still very competitive and I want to play against the best," Courier told Gulf News as he prepared to face Mikael Pernfors in his opening match later tonight.
The tournament will get under way with the first singles quarterfinals between Haarhuis and Pioline starting at 5 pm, followed by the match between Stich and Cash.
The annual event began yesterday with the Kids' Day where Cash, Courier and Thomas Muster mingled freely with 300 odd budding tennis players from the UAE.
Charity dinner
The Kids' Day was followed by the Pro-Am where tennis players get the opportunity of playing alongside the legends. The evening concluded with the charity dinner with the proceeds being split among the Dubai Centre for Special Needs and the Dubai Autism Centre.
"I promised Dubai would have Borg [Bjorn] and we got him here. I promised McEnroe [John] and he too came and played here last year. At Delwood, we believe in delivering our promises," Farbod Dowlatshahi, President of Delwood, the organisers of the event, told Gulf News.
"We have some of the best former players here. It is time for the UAE residents to come out and take a walk down memory lane."
