UAE’s top players hailed the Mubadala World Tennis Championship and Abu Dhabi Sports Council’s initiative to stage a tournament for local Emiratis ahead of the three-day showpiece, admitting they are in desperate need of competitions held on home soil.

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The country’s No. 1 and No. 2, Omar Behroozian and Mahmoud Nader, were the finalists of the inaugural Abu Dhabi Sports Council UAE National Cup that featured eight of the UAE’s top players, and their reward was a doubles match with MWTC pros Kevin Anderson and Feliciano Lopez on centre court Friday.

Behroozian won the newly introduced tournament and bagged a Dh24,000 cheque while runnerup Nader earned Dh12,000, courtesy of the ADSC. Nader partnered Anderson and Behroozian teamed up with Lopez, and they faced off in a 10-point tiebreak playoff.

“This is a great start,” Nader said of the initiative taken by the ADSC and Mubadala. 

“It was a good tournament and we got to see where our level is at as well as the younger Emirati players. Matches like these give you motivation for our upcoming duties like Davis Cup and the GCC Championships, which are both important events for us.

“This gave us a chance to play some much-needed matches, as we don’t have many tournaments held in the UAE, and we hope it is just the beginning and that they host this event every year.”

Earlier in the day, Spaniard world No. 5 Rafael Nadal helped young winners of the Mubadala Community Cup get their 2016 off to a flying start with a tennis clinic for the under 10 and under 12 category victors.

Canada’s Milos Raonic, who joins the stellar player line-up for the first time, was also in action on the clinic courts, hosting winners from the adult category where they picked up some expert tips before going on to battle it out in a Mubadala Community Cup interemirate play-off.

“It was an incredible experience playing with Rafa and I came over from France especially to be here for this,” said 12-year-old Victor Paganetti. “He is my favourite tennis player and I have met him before but to actually play with him was so much better. I hope to become a professional tennis player one day so this was a great experience for me.”

Meanwhile in the Tennis Village, fans had the chance to meet David Ferrer and Stan Wawrinka when they signed autographs for expectant visitors of all ages.