Sultan Ahmad Al Habtoor (left) and Ahmad Al Habtoor with singles title winner Elsa Jacquemot. File

The reigning champion and runner-up will square up for an engrossing week of tennis as Dubai plays host to the 26th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge in the first half of December.

French girl Elsa Jacquemot will be defending her crown, and will be joined by last time runner-up Magdalena Frech — the top-ranked player this year — as the oldest women’s professional tennis event in the Middle East opens on December 3.

The tournament will commence with qualifying rounds on December 3 (Saturday) at the Habtoor Grand Resort. The draw ceremony for singles main round will be conducted the following day with a few of the top players in attendance.

Jacquemot stunned the more experienced Frech 7-5, 6-2 in last year’s final to win a first professional career title at the hugely-popular W100+H event on the ITF World Tennis Tour at the Habtoor Grand tennis courts.

Meanwhile, Frech — who is top-ranked at No.63 — will come to Dubai after enjoying a near-perfect preparation for this event after claiming her first title in over two years on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W100 Les Franqueses del Valles in Spain, at the end of October.

Frech defeated former Roland Garros finalist Sara Errani 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 at the Spanish hard-court event to claim her seventh professional singles crown – the second biggest of her career after her triumph at the WTA 125 event in Concord in August 2021.

The 25-year-old Pole then joined Magda Linette, Katarzyna Kawa and Weronika Falkowska in Dawid Celt’s side for the women’s World Cup of Tennis that was held in Seville, earlier this month.

Slovakia’s Viktoria Hruncakova, who lost to Frech in the semifinal here last year, is the second-best player in the cast with a WTA Ranking of No.116, while 2021 champion Daria Snigur, who crashed out to Rebecca Sramkova in the first round last year, is ranked third at 124.

Mai Hontama of Japan and Maria Timofeeva – who came through the qualifying rounds in 2022 before going down to eventual champion Jacquemot in their second round clash – will complete the top-5 players in this year’s competition.

First held in 1998, this tournament is classified as an ITF Women’s Circuit competition. The competition started off as an $25,000 ITF event, before being raised to a $75,000 tournament between 1999 to 2015.

Since 2016, the annual fixture has been upgraded to a $100,000 plus hospitality event on the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour attracting some of the top champions alongside a fast-improving breed of promising young stars.

The brainchild of Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, Founding Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group, the annual tournament has managed to live up to its hype of encouraging the development of women’s tennis in the UAE and the region, while raising the profile of the sport across the Arab world.

Included in the long list of past champions are former Grand Slam winners and top-class players such as Sorana Cirstea (2020), Ana Bogdan (2019), Peng Shuai (2018), Belinda Bencic (2017), Kimiko Date-Krumm (2012), Sania Mirza (2010), Maria Kirilenko (2007), Kateryna Bondarenko (2006), Marion Bartoli (2005), Jelena Jankovic (2003) and inaugural winner Kyra Nagy (1998).

FACT SHEET

Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge 2023 – W100+H

Dates: December 4-10

Venue: Habtoor Grand Resort Autograph Collection, Dubai Marina

Tournament Director: Noura Badawi

Singles Qualifying: 32 (Starts on December 3)

Main tournament draw starts: December 4 (draw of 32)