Day one of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2017 will start with doubles here in Doha, as World #1 Andy Murray teams with Marius Fyrstenberg of Poland. The two will face another first-time pairing, Spain’s David Marrero and legend Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia. Andy has actually won two ATP World Tour Doubles titles with brother and fellow #1 Jamie (Valencia 2010, Tokyo 2011). His partner picked-up his 18th career Doubles title last February in Memphis, while Zimonjic and Marrero own 66 titles between them (53 of those belonging to Nenad), including three ATP World Tour year-end championships.
[lightbox link=”http://andytayloronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/QEMO17-011.png” thumb=”http://andytayloronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/QEMO17-011-320×200.png” width=”320″ align=”right” title=”The Qatar ExxonMobil Open starts Monday at 3:30p” frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=”Play in Doha starts Monday at 3:30″]Defending champion Novak Djokovic then takes the court with Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, who will get his first stab at the perennial favorite who spent a combined 223-weeks as the World #1, before Andy Murray’s win in Paris last November.
Monday’s third match on Center Court will see Robin Haase of the Netherlands face the #4-seed David Goffin of Belgium, who comes into week-one after a Finals appearance at Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala World Tennis Championship. David fell to Rafael Nadal in the final, but defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Andy Murray along the way.
The nightcap brings us Fernando Verdasco, who drew a qualifier at the Four Seasons on Saturday. Turns out, that qualifier will be Canadian young gun Vasek Pospisil, who defeated Qatari Wild Card Ali Mutawa yesterday and Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili today to earn his place in the main draw.
Other Round-1 singles and doubles matches will be played on Courts 1-3 Monday, including enticing clashes between Poalo Lorenzi and Nicolas Almagro, Marcos Baghdatis and Radek Stepanek, and Horacio Zeballos vs. Florian Mayer. Check below for Monday’s order of play.
Doha. Qualifying Round-1 Results from Sunday
[8] V. Pospisil (CAN) d [1] N. Basilashvili (GEO) 62 61
[2] R. Stepanek (CZE) d E. Lopez-Perez (ESP) 61 64
[7] A. Giannessi (ITA) d M. Basic (BIH) 64 62
M. Safwat (EGY) d V. Millot (FRA) 63 06 62
