Mubadala tennis championship thrills again with top performances

ABU DHABI: The 14th Mubadala World Tennis Championship served up another memorable three-day festival here at the weekend, with a new champion crowned in front of thousands of spectators.

An exciting week at the Arabian Gulf’s leading tennis experience was capped in fine style with Stefanos Tsitsipas coming out on top in a thrilling final over Andrey Rublev, which underlined the championship’s status as one of the most anticipated events on the region’s sporting and social calendar.

Following the UAE Special Olympics tennis demonstration earlier on the weekend, Mohammed Al-Yammahi, aged 11, a champion equestrian athlete at the Abu Dhabi Club for People of Determination, undertook the coin toss for the final. Rublev and Tsitsipas then took their friendly rivalry to the next level with an exceptional match.

Tsitsipas, who had looked impressive all week in victories over Cam Norrie and world No. 3 Casper Ruud, came bursting out of the blocks breaking the Rublev serve in the first game and continued to dominate, breaking again in game five before sealing the opening set 6-2.

The second set went with serve and Tsitsipas had to dig deep with some big shots to square matters at 3-3. The set continued with serve until Rublev produced some stunning counter play to break his Greek opponent in game 10, taking the set 6-4 and sending the match into a deciding set.

In a repeat of the opening set, Tsitsipas broke the Rublev serve, held his own and broke again for a 3-0 lead that he would hold on to, finally wrapping up the set 6-2 to secure a first MWTC title at the second time of asking, having made the final on his first appearance in 2019.

“I would just like to thank everyone for coming out to support us, especially knowing