Federer, who defeated Ivan Ljubjcic of Croatia in last year’s final is drawn against Czech wildcard entry Ivo Minar in his first match of the 2006 tournament and could, theoretically, meet 1998/2000 champion, Fabrice Santoro of France in the second round. Second-seeded World No.5, Nikolay Davydenko — the other top 10 player in the tournament - faces Belgium’s Christophe Rochus in the first round.

One of the most popular players amongst Qatari and expatriate fans in Doha is Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui, 2002 Qatar Open winner and a wildcard entry this year.

Briton Tim Henman was set to play his first match in this year’s Open — against Number 3 seed, Richart Gasquet of France — yesterday evening, but compatriate Greg Rusedski was a last-minute withdrawl from the tournament due to injury. Qatar’s Sultan Khalfan was scheduled to face Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus on Court 1 yesterday afternoon.

Federer, who flew into Qatar on Sunday, told the Press: “I had a good run in 2004 and I was able to match it in 2005. I’m aiming at a repeat of that in 2006 as well.” He has been undergoing two weeks of intensive practice with his coach in Sydney to fine-tune his game, and says the Australian Open, in two week’s time, will probably be a good indicator of how his new season will go.

The ATP tour’s Qatar ExxonMobil Open is one of two major international championships to be played in Qatar each year; the other is the WTA’s Qatar Total Open. Qatar has also bought outright the Berlin Open — now renamed the Qatar Total Berlin Open — but both last year and this, the tournament remains located in Germany. Qatar has also bought a share in the German Masters.