Novak Djokovic will face Italian Lorenzo Musetti in his return to tennis at the Dubai Championships

Updated 19/02/2022 at 13:44 GMT

Novak Djokovic's first competitive appearance of 2022 at the Dubai Tennis Championships will be against Lorenzo Musetti. The draw for the ATP 500 event was made on Saturday, with the world number one set to compete for the first time since a Davis Cup semi-final on December 3. Britain's Andy Murray - in the draw with a wildcard - will face a qualifier.

'I've missed tennis' - Djokovic tells fans in Dubai he's keen to get back on court

Novak Djokovic has been drawn to face Lorenzo Musetti in the Dubai Tennis Championships.

The ATP tournament - which runs from February 14-26 and with qualifying already begun - will see the Serb make his comeback to competitive tennis for the first time since December 3.

Djokovic had been scheduled to take part in January's Australian Open, but saw his participation blocked as a result of complications surrounding his unvaccinated Covid-19 status, which resulted in an Australian judge deporting him for his risk of inciting anti-vaccination sentiment.

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With the UAE not insisting that entrants to the country have to be vaccinated, Djokovic has been able to train and prepare for the Dubai event under less of a glare.

And now he will get ready to take on Italian Musetti, who performed strongly in reaching the quarter-finals of the recent Rotterdam Open.

Britain's Andy Murray will face a qualifier following his entry into the draw with a wildcard.

In notable other matches, Rotterdam winner Felix Auger-Aliassime will take on Nikoloz Basilashvili, Dan Evans will face second seed Andrey Rublev and Canadian Denis Shapovalov will come up against Marton Fucsovics.

The main draw gets underway on Sunday at The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Centre.

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