By: Aaron Xiong

With the conclusion to the 2021 Australian Open, players are looking towards other hard court tournaments before the clay season begins. On the list of the bigger tournaments for the men’s tour is the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Qatar ExxonMobil Open, Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and the Miami Open.

The ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament which is held in Rotterdam, Netherlands was fortunate enough to hold this tournament due to declining number in COVID-19 cases in the Netherlands. Highlighting this tournament is new world number 3 Daniil Medvedev who is the top seed at this tournament and is looking to add another trophy to his collection. Other big names are world number 6 and second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, world number 7 and third seed Alexander Zverev and Russian Andrey Rublev as the fourth seed to round off the four quarters of the draw. With this tournament being a level 500 tournament which sees the winner winning 500 ranking points, the title is up for grabs during the first week of March as the players head to Europe.

Looking to the Middle East where several tournaments are played is the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. Tennis legend Roger Federer will making his 2021 debut after missing over a year of match play due to injuries and surgeries that sidelined him in early 2020. Federer has been teasing fans about his comeback for months by counting down the days to his return in Qatar on his Instagram account. The 20 time Grand Slam champion has made several remarkable comebacks after missing portions of seasons such as the 2017 season. In 2017, Federer did the impossible and won his 18th and 19th Grand Slam titles after missing the ladder half of 2016 due to a knee injury he sustained at Wimbledon. Federer would go on to win the 2017 Australian Open and Wimbledon titles, as well as the Sunshine Double (Both Indian Wells and Miami Masters titles), and the Shanghai Masters. With experience on his side and the crowd behind him, Roger Federer will take the stage starting March 8th in Qatar.

Later in March, tournaments like the ATP 500 Dubai Open and the Miami Masters will be held. These tournaments will round up the Spring hard court season as the clay court season will begin starting in April.