QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN: DAY 6 MEDIA NOTES Saturday, 6 January 2018 Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex | Doha, Qatar | 1-6 January 2018 Draw: S-32, D-16 | Prize Money: $1,286,675 | Surface: Outdoor Hard ATP World Tour Info Tournament Info ATP PR & Marketing ATPWorldTour.com QatarTennis.org Martin Dagahs:
[email protected] Twitter: @ATPWorldTour @QatarTennis Press Room: +974 44409621 Facebook: @ATPWorldTour @QatarTennis TV & Radio: TennisTV.com MONFILS SEEKS ELUSIVE TITLE, HISTORY ON LINE FOR RUBLEV Gael Monfils is 6-20 in ATP World Tour finals and 0-3 with the Qatar ExxonMobil Open title on the line. On Saturday against Andrey Rublev, he can start anew with a championship to begin 2018. The Frenchman arrived as a wild card following a four-month hiatus due to a right knee injury. Monfils has found success in familiar territory, falling to then-No. 1 Roger Federer (2006), then-No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2012) and then-No. 1 Rafael Nadal (2014) in his previous Doha finals. Monfils is one of three wild cards to reach the final in Doha’s 26-year tournament history, joining Younes El Aynaoui in 1996 and Nicolas Escude in 2004. Escude, also from France, is the only wild card to win the Doha title. Monfils’ first final in Doha came as a 19-year-old, but his 20-year-old opponent on Saturday is bidding to become the youngest Qatar ExxonMobil Open champion ever. Rublev is through to the final despite hitting a total of 33 double faults in his four victories this week. INFOSYS ATP SCORES & STATS Qatar ExxonMobil Open [WC] Gael