Marat Safin in Dubai Barclays Duty free

Marat Safin has been given a wild card entry to Barclays Dubai tennis championship.

Safin reached the final here in 2001 before having to retire against Juan Carlos Ferrero with injury, and he has since struggled to repeat that success. In his four appearances since then he has failed to advance beyond the second round, but he has shown good form recently, with a final in Moscow in October and a fine performance against Roger Federer at the Australian Open suggesting he can still be a threat to anyone.

An interesting first-round clash will see Russia’s Marat Safin take on Frenchman Richard Gasquet. Ranked 26 and 27 in the world respectively, the two couldn’t be more closely matched. Safin, who had to reply on a wild card to participate in the tournament, has the superior record of three wins to Gasquet’s one, when the two have gone head to head in the past. He will, however, be hoping to avoid emulating his sister’s performance in Dubai this year – the world number two, Dinara Safina having crashed out in her first match of the tournament, after being handed a bye in the first round.