World No. 2 Novak Djokovic, who had taken an extended break since his second round loss to Denis Istomin at the Australian Open in January has accepted a wild card at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco that will be held from 27 February to 4 March. It will be the Serb’s first appearance in the tournament.
Djokovic’s participation in the ATP 500 event is also a departure from his otherwise norm of playing the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship that is held in the same week as Acapulco. The 12-time Grand Slam champion had earlier, through his officially released schedule, confirmed that he would be giving the Dubai Open a miss this year and instead rejoin the Tour directly in Indian Wells, where he is the defending champion.
Also, given that Acapulco will be his first event since he was forced to restrict himself to only one singles rubber in Serbia’s Davis Cup first round against Russia, because of a shoulder niggle, it will be interesting to see how Djokovic fares in the draw.
Following Djokovic’s participation, the player field in Acapulco now has five top-to players namely, the World No. 4 Milos Raonic, the World No. 6 Rafael Nadal, the World No. 7 Marin Cilic and the World No. 8 Dominic Thiem, who will be bidding to defend his title.