DUBAI — Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev stayed on course toward a potential rematch for the title at the Dubai Championships after the Russians won their quarter-finals.
Medvedev, the defending champion and No. 1 seed, defeated eighth-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2, 6-3 to set up a semifinal against fifth-seeded Ugo Humbert, AP reported.
The second-seeded Rublev advanced when Sebastian Korda retired with an unspecified injury. Rublev was up 6-4, 4-3 at the time.
Before Dubai, Medvedev had not played since losing the Australian Open final to Jannik Sinner a month ago, so a lack of match sharpness was hardly surprising.
The Russian had to grind past Alexander Shevchenko and Lorenzo Sonego in the first and second rounds respectively but enjoyed a far more comfortable outing against eighth seed Davidovich Fokina to reach the semi-finals.
Medvedev was not fully back to his brilliant best, although there was enough on show to suggest that he is trending in the right direction and remains the man to beat in Dubai.
Rublev will face seventh-seeded Alexander Bublik, who reached the last four after his Czech opponent Jiri Lehecka also retired with an injury. The big-serving Bublik was leading 6-4, 4-1.
“Alejandro can play very well,” Medvedev, 28, said. “Sometimes during matches he can have a little down moment and then he goes up. I knew that no matter the score, I needed to go until the last point.
“The second set at one moment got a bit tighter but I managed to stay there and win some more games and it was enough to win.”
The world No 4 set himself up for victory with a run that started towards the end of the first set and concluded midway through the second when he won seven straight games.
After fending off three break points to hold for a 3-2 lead, Medvedev secured back-to-back breaks of his own to ease to a one-set lead in 36 minutes.
One year ago, Medvedev defeated Rublev 6-2, 6-2 in the all-Russian final at the hard-court tournament. The 2021 US Open champion has 20 singles titles – 18 on hard courts – but has never won the same event twice.
Humbert advanced by beating third-seeded Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-3 in the last match of the evening.
The Frenchman saved three match points in the second-set tiebreaker en route to his second win over Hurkacz since losing to him at the Australian Open in January.
Rublev, the 2022 Dubai champion, was in control of his earlier quarter-final match against Sebastian Korda when the American retired injured. The Russian world No 5 was leading by a set and a break 6-4, 4-3.
“The game was not very good, but not because of the level. The conditions were super tough. It was really windy, a lot of sun with the shadow on the court,” Rublev, 26, said.
“When it’s these kinds of conditions, the tennis is always not that beautiful, but you need to find a way.
“You have to accept that this is the way it is. Sometimes I was lucky as well because of those conditions. In important moments the ball moved because of the wind and he couldn’t play well. It helped me a lot today.”
Rublev admitted he was surprised by Korda’s retirement as there was no indication that the world No 33 was struggling with an injury or any physical limitations. With the Indian Wells Masters starting next week, there is a chance Korda was being precautious, although there has been no confirmation on the extent of his injury.
“I didn’t realise until the moment he told me he was finishing, because he was serving quite hard, he was hitting quite hard the ball,” Rublev said. “I didn’t notice any of the problem during the match. It was only when he told me he was finishing.”
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