1996 Dubai Tennis Championships – Singles

Wayne Ferreira was the defending champion and lost in the quarterfinals to Goran Ivanišević.

Ivanišević won in the final 6–4, 6–3 against Albert Costa.

Seeds
A champion seed is indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which that seed was eliminated.


 * 1) 🇦🇹 Thomas Muster (first round)
 * 2) 🇸🇪 Thomas Enqvist (quarterfinals)
 * 3) 🇺🇸 Jim Courier (first round)
 * 4)  Goran Ivanišević (champion)
 * 5)  Wayne Ferreira (quarterfinals)
 * 6)  Marc Rosset (first round)
 * 7) 🇺🇦 Andriy Medvedev (second round)
 * 8) 🇦🇹 Gilbert Schaller (first round)