Stan Wawrinka hopes to end title drought with Qatar Open title

Swiss tennis player Stan Wawrinka is pinning his hopes on Qatar Open to ends his title drought. However, the inaugural ATP Cup in Australia will take the limelight away from the $1.4 million prize tournament.

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Wawrinka looking to end drought

While speaking to a Qatar daily, tournament director Karim Alami said, "We have been talking with the ATP Tour for the last year and a half to find a solution. We are trying to find another date - maybe sometime in February before the event in Dubai so it could be part of the Middle East swing."

In an indication of how badly-holed the Qatar tournament has been by the ATP Cup, Russia's Andrey Rublev, the world 23, takes the second seeding.

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Wawrinka has not won a title since pocketing the 16th of his career on the Geneva clay in 2017. His last outdoor hard court trophy was in 2016 when he captured his third and most recent Grand Slam at the US Open.

Since then, the popular Swiss has been pushed to the brink of retirement by two bouts of surgery on his left knee. A lengthy absence from the tour meant his world ranking, which once peaked at three in 2014, sank to 263 four years later.

Wawrinka, runner-up to Andy Murray in Doha in 2008 and a quarter-finalist 12 months ago, will face French veteran Jeremy Chardy or a qualifier in his opening match in the Qatari capital. Rublev, beaten by France's Gael Monfils in the 2019 final, will face either Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri or Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan.

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France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 2012 champion, faces the winner of the tie between Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia and Australia's Jordan Thompson.

Canada's Milos Raonic seeded fourth, begins against either Tennys Sandgren of the United States or a qualifier.

(With inputs from PTI)

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