Dubai: The patron of the annual Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge (AHTC) is convinced this year’s competition will attract at least a few top-50 players when the event is held at the Habtoor Grand Resort Autograph Collection from December 10-17.

Organisers have been busy getting all arrangements in order for the annual tournament that has been won in the past by players like Jelena Jankovic (2003), Marion Bartoli (2005), Maria Kirilenko (2007), Sania Mirza (2010) and Kimiko Date-Krumm (2012). And now, with exactly two months to go for hosting the 19th edition, organisers are confident the event will have at least a few stars from the WTA Tour.

“Some of the top players have been making enquiries with us about this year’s tournament. And we are hopeful that at least a few of these will turn up for the competition,” Khalaf Al Habtoor, Chairman, Habtoor Group, told Gulf News.

Recently, Al Habtoor — who founded this tournament way back in 1998 with the intention of raising the level of women’s tennis in the region — announced that the ITF Women’s Circuit event will have an upgraded prize purse of $100,000 along with players’ hospitality.

“The Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge has now entered ITF record books for being the highest-ranked women’s tournament in the world for 2016. When we launched this event nearly two decades ago we made a pledge to support women’s tennis and this upgrading of the competition is just another step in this direction,” Al Habtoor added.

Turkey’s Cagla Buyukakcay, who became the first-ever player in the 18 years of this event to win both the singles and doubles titles last year, is one of the players who has shown her intention of signing up this year as well. Her form in Dubai at the end of last year has seen the Turkish girl rise to an all-time high of No. 60 on the WTA last month.

“We still have another two months to go. We expect players to start paying more attention to our event in the next three or four weeks as the season comes to a close and they will need to sort out their preparation schedule for 2017,” he noted.

The WTA schedule for 2016 has entered its final few tournaments with the best eight competing for the season-finale BNP Paribas WTA Finals in Singapore from October 24. “There is still a lot of time left for players to confirm for our tournament, and this time, we will definitely have among the best fields in the history of our event,” he said.

“On our part, we will ensure that everything is in order to host some of the top players in women’s tennis at our signature property,” Al Khalaf added.