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.

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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.