For years, Dubai has been home to various world-class sporting events, including the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, Dubai Polo Gold Cup, Spinneys Dubai 92 Cycling Challenge, Dubai World Cup, and the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens.
And since 2009, the city also hosts one of the most prestigious tennis singles exhibition tournaments in the world: the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
The annual sporting event features an elite group of tennis players competing in different matches over three days.
The Mubadala World Tennis Championship is the last biggest event of the year in tennis. It also serves as a precursor to the Australian Open, the first of the four annual Grand Slam tennis events.
Mubadala World Tennis Championship Winners
Based on the latest tennis news, the winner of this year’s tournament is Andrey Rublev.
Here’s a look at the current champion and other winners of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship:
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Andrey Rublev
The Russian pro tennis player beat Andy Murray in two matches in this year’s finals.
Rublev currently ranks number 5 on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), his highest ranking so far. He has won eight ATP singles titles and two doubles titles.
Rublev also has two doubles titles and an Olympic gold medal, which he won at the 2020 Summer Olympics in a mixed doubles match with his partner Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Rublev is the first Russian tennis pro player to win the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. It is also his first time to win this tournament.
2. Rafael Nadal
The Spanish professional tennis player, currently ranked number 6 on the ATP, holds the most wins in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. He has won the tournament five times since 2009.
The five-time number 1 tennis player has won 20 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, a record he shares with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
Nadal also holds the record for 13 French Open titles and is known for his 81 consecutive wins on clay, which is the longest single-surface winning streak in tennis history.
In addition, Nadal has an Olympic gold medal in both single and double tournaments.
This year, Nadal’s comeback was marred by an injury, which led to his defeat under his old rival, Andy Murray.
Rafael Nadal won the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in 2010, 2011, January and December 2016, and 2019.
3. Novac Djokovic
The Serbian tennis player did not participate in this year’s tournament. However, he has already won the Mubadala World Tennis Championship four times.
Novac Djokovic holds the most wins in this particular tournament next to Nadal.
The current number 1 player on the ATP, Djokovic has won 20 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, including nine Australian Open titles.
He has finished the ATP Year-End as number 1 seven times.
Djokovic holds 86 ATP singles titles, including a world record of 37 Masters events.
The Serbian tennis pro is the only person in the Open Era to attain a double career Grand Slam and complete a non-calendar year Grand Slam.
Djokovic won the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2018.
4. Andy Murray
The British professional tennis player won the inaugural Mubadala World Tennis Championship in 2009.
Currently ranked at 139, Andy Murray once ranked number 1 in the world by the ATP for 41 weeks.
Murray has won three Grand Slam singles titles, two from Wimbledon and one from the US Open.
Murray has won 46 ATP singles titles. He was also awarded a men’s singles gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
Andy Murray placed second in this year’s Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
5. Kevin Anderson
The South African professional tennis player won the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in 2017.
Kevin Anderson achieved his career-high ATP ranking of number 5 in 2018.
Anderson was the first South African to be ranked in the top 5 of the ATP since Kevin Curren. He became the top-ranked male South African player in 2008.
Anderson currently ranks number 73 on the ATP. He did not join this year’s Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
6. Jelena Ostapenko
The Latvian professional tennis player won the first Mubadala World Tennis Championship women’s singles in 2017.
Je?ena Ostapenko achieved a career-high Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking of number 5 in 2018. At present, she ranks number 30 on the ATP.
In 2017, Ostapenko won the French Open singles title, becoming the first Latvian player to win a Grand Slam tournament. She was also the first unseeded player to win the French Open since 1933.
She has won seven singles and eight doubles titles on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women’s Circuit.
7. Venus Williams
One of the greatest female tennis players of all time, Venus Williams won the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in 2018.
Williams has been ranked world number 1 by the WTA for a total of 19 weeks, 11 in singles and 8 in doubles. She has reached 16 Grand Slam finals and won seven Grand Slam singles titles.
Venus and her sister, Serena Willams, have 14 Grand Slam Women’s doubles titles under their belts and three Olympic gold medals.
Williams has also won one Olympic gold for a singles match.
8. Maria Sharapova
The former Russian world number 1 tennis player won the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in 2019.
From 2001 to 2020, Sharapova competed on the WTA Tour, where she ranked world number 1 in singles on five different occasions for 21 weeks. She is the only Russian to hold the career Grand Slam.
Sharapova has won five Grand Slam titles, two at the French Open and one each from the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. She has 36 titles all in all.
She also won a silver medal in women’s singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
9. Ons Jabeur
The Tunisian professional tennis player is this year’s winner of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship women’s singles.
Jabeur currently ranks number 10 on the WTA. However, she is the number 1 African player and the highest-ranked Arab tennis player in ATP and WTA.
She is the first Arab woman to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament during the 2020 Australian Open. She repeated this feat during the 2021 Wimbledon Championships.
Jabeur got her first WTA title at the 2021 Birmingham Classic. Because of this, she became the first-ever Arab and Tunisian female tennis player to win a WTA title.
The Mubadala World Tennis Championship is worth making a special trip to Dubai every year for, to witness first-hand the exceptional talent of A-list players and the excitement on and off the court.