Men's tennis tournament in Dubai, singles – semi-finals, March 2, 2023. Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic.
Dubai – World number one Novak Djokovic suffered his first defeat of the season in the 16th match of the season. In the semi-finals in Dubai, the Serbian tennis player lost to Daniil Medvedev 4:6, 4:6. The tournament with a subsidy of three million dollars will culminate in the Russian final, in which Medvedev will face defending champion Andrey Rublyov. The seeded number two defeated the German Alexander Zverev 6:3, 7:6.
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Djokovic arrived in Dubai, where he has won five times in the past, after triumphs in Adelaide and the Australian Open in January. In the first round, he sweated in a three-set win over Tomáš Macháč, he managed the next two matches without any problems, but he did not even win a set against Medvedev.
In the fourteenth match with the holder of a record 22 Grand Slam titles, the Russian tennis player scored his fifth win and 13 .victory in a row. After recent triumphs in Rotterdam and Doha, they will attack on Saturday for the third title of the year.
“Against Novak you have to play your best and hope he doesn't have his day because otherwise… He has 22 Grand Slams so it's tough against him and you're not guaranteed to win. I'm glad I played better than him.” Medvedev praised himself according to Reuters. “Before the match, I felt great, now it's not so great anymore. Every match with Novak is physically demanding, there are a lot of exchanges. Today it was humid, we sweated a lot, which neither of us was happy about. They are always between us big battles, I'm looking forward to the next one,” he declared.
Rublev defeated Zverev on the ATP circuit for the first time, having lost in the previous five duels with the Olympic champion from Tokyo. He saved a set point in the tie-break of the second set and finally after two hours he was happy to advance.
“I told myself that I have nothing to lose. I have always lost to him, so why should I stress,” he said Rubljov, who defeated Jiří Vesely in the final last year. Zverev played his first semi-final since last year's Roland Garros, where he seriously injured his ankle.
Rubljov spoke out against the war in Ukraine several times after the match. “You can't pretend nothing is happening because it's horrible. It's hard not to be affected by it. It's crazy that so many ordinary people are suffering and dying. And when it's happening now that we have all the cell phones, the Internet, social networks. I hope that soon there will be peace everywhere. Anywhere, in every country,” he declared.
Dubai Men's Tennis Tournament
(hard surface, endowment $3,020,535)
Singles – semi-finals:
Medvedev (3-Russia) – Djokovic (1-Serbia) 6:4, 6:4, Rublyov (2-Russia .) – Zverev (7-Germany) 6:3, 7:6 (11:9).
