Nadal, Rublev, Murray Converge in Abu Dhabi for MWTC 2021

The Mubadala World Tennis Championship is back this year, and it’s bringing you world-class tennis entertainment and major tennis heavyweights. Buy Mubadala tennis tickets to meet celebrated athletes and watch their legendary plays unfold on 16-18 December 2021 at the International Tennis Centre, Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi.

Eight players — six males and two females — are gracing the Stadium Court. Among them are:

• Rafael Nadal, sixth in the world and 20-time Grand Slam champion,
• Andrey Rublev, the world’s fifth and mixed doubles gold medalist at Tokyo Olympics, and
• Andy Murray, two-time Wimbledon champion and two-time winner of the Olympic gold medal in tennis singles.

It’s looking like a grand time at MWTC this December 2021, indeed.

The 2021 Mubadala World Tennis Championship Schedule

The annual championship’s major events are spread across three days. Aside from the actual matches, the details of which can be found below, there will be tennis clinics from the famed tennis pros and individual Q&As or player interactions all throughout the three-day championship event.

16th December

There will be one female tennis singles match, and this will happen on Day 1. The two female contenders are 10th in the world of women’s tennis Ons Jabeur and Olympic gold and silver medalist Belinda Bencic.

The elimination matches among the male players will also take place on Day 1. Facing number 14 in the world, 22-year-old Denis Shapovalov of Canada is number 23 in the world, 24-year-old Taylor Fritz of the United States. Their contest will be followed by a Brit-on-Brit match between Great Britain’s number two player, 31-year-old Daniel Evans, and the world-renowned 34-year-old Andy Murray.

Other Activities

Also, on Day 1, taking place one at a time in the Outside Courts will be the tennis clinics by Taylor Fritz, Dennis Shapovalov, Dan Evans, and Andy Murray.

Later in the afternoon, but before the championship matches begin, the Q&As (one player at a time) will follow. There will be Q&As for Belinda Bencic, Rafael Nadal, Ons Jabeur, and Andrey Rublev.

17th December

On the second day of the tennis tournament, there will be a play-off for fifth place between the male players who got eliminated the day before. The winners of Day 1’s elimination matches, on the other hand, will face the higher-seeded players on the court.

The winner of the elimination match between Fritz and Shapovalov will challenge the world’s number five, 24-year-old Russian player Andrey Rublev. Rublev is a gold medalist in mixed doubles tennis in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Moreover, he won five singles titles in 2020 alone: Vienna, St. Petersburg, Hamburg, Adelaide, and Doha.

Likewise, the winner in the skirmish between Evans and Murray will face the world’s number six, 35-year-old Rafael Nadal from Spain. Nadal is one of the few pros who hold 20 Grand Slam Championships. He also has 88 ATP Tour singles titles, 13 Roland Garros victories, and a tennis singles gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Other Activities

On the second day, there will be tennis clinics by Marcos Baghdatis, Andrey Rublev, and Belinda Bencic. There will also be player interactions all throughout the day until right before the 5th Place Play-Off and Rublev’s and Nadal’s respective tennis matches.

You can also look forward to a live cooking demo with Rixos Premium Saadiyat Island Chef.

18th December

There will be a play-off for third place between those who lost in the Rublev and Nadal matches on the last day. The winners from those contests, on the other hand, will face each other in the Men’s Final.

Other Activities

More player interactions will lead up to the 3rd Place Play-Off and the Men’s Final, and the Trophy Ceremony will cap the day.

Please note that the Mubadala tennis schedule 2021 and player line-up might change at the last minute and without prior notice.

History of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship

The Mubadala World Tennis Championship is the Arabian Gulf’s leading professional tennis exhibition event. It is the brainchild of Flash Entertainment, who launched it in 2009 as the Capitala World Tennis Championship after the then title sponsor, Capital.

The event’s name would remain Capitala World Tennis Championship until 2010. In 2011, the event’s third year, it officially became Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

The MWTC is undeniably one of the highlights of UAE sports as the competition consistently brings top tennis stars to Abu Dhabi. It also often marks the unofficial start of a new tennis season, or in this year’s case, the end of the 2021 season.

The first-ever MWTC (then CWTC) was held in January 2009. It immediately made a splash in the sporting world because of the high caliber of the players it brought to the International Tennis Complex at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi.

Some of the tennis greats that played in that first year were Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray. Nadal and Murray fought in the finals, and Murray outplayed Nadal to win the event. The following year, however, Nadal brought home the trophy.

Nadal won four more times, making him a five-time MWTC trophy winner. He is also this year’s defending champion. Novak Djokovic, the world’s current number one, is the next most prolific player in the MWTC, having won four times (2011, 2012, 2013, and 2018).

The MWTC is an exhibition event or tournament. As such, it does not contribute to players’ world rankings. Even so, it comes with a generous purse for the winning pros. The winners of the female singles and the male singles finals each win a USD 250,000 prize money.

The 2021 MWTC is the 13th MWTC season since 2009. Two exhibition events were held in 2011, one in January, which Nadal won, and another in December, which Novak Djokovic won. There were also two events in 2016, one in January and another in December. Both times, Nadal won. However, there was no MWTC in 2014 and, because of the pandemic, there was also no tournament in 2020.

Ready for the Tennis Greats’ Face-Off?

On 16th December, several of the world’s best tennis pros will converge in Abu Dhabi for the 13th Mubadala World Tennis Championship. Buy your tickets soon, if you haven’t done so already, and experience the electrifying action of a world-class tennis exhibition event.

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