Medvedev and Bublik progress on day two in Dubai
Daniil Medvedev began his Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships campaign with a 6-1, 6-3 win over China’s Juncheng Shang on Tuesday, setting up a last-16 meeting with Stan Wawrinka.
Medvedev, the third seed and 2023 champion in Dubai, needed a little over an hour to get through the match on Centre Court. The Russian hit 20 winners and 10 aces and won 81 per cent of points behind his first serve, rarely allowing the rallies to drift on his terms.
It was a repeat of last week’s meeting in Doha, where Medvedev also beat Shang in straight sets. Shang, 21, arrived in Dubai ranked outside the top 250 and has shown flashes of promise this season, including a quarter-final run in Hong Kong in January, but he could not find a way to unsettle Medvedev’s baseline control.
Medvedev said he stuck with the same plan that had worked in Doha, while adjusting to what he expected Shang to change.
“If it works, you need to stick to it,” Medvedev said. “I knew he would try to adapt some things, so I tried to adapt to his adaptations and did that quite well.”
There were still moments that drew the crowd in. Early in the opening set, the pair traded a 34-shot rally, one of the longer exchanges of the tournament so far, before Medvedev finished the point.
Medvedev said he is trying not to judge his form too harshly after a run of recent losses, even if the scoreline was comfortable.
“I shouldn’t judge myself too much just now,” he said. “I won 6-1, 6-3, so if we don’t put every point under the microscope, it was a good level in general. I look forward to the next match and raising my level even more.”
Alexander Bublik
Soon after Medvedev’s win, second seed Alexander Bublik opened his week with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff, a lucky loser in the draw. The match lasted 66 minutes.
Bublik, ranked No 10 in the world, broke serve early for a 3-1 lead in the first set and did not let it go. He hit six aces in the opener and saved three break points, before breaking again in the ninth game to close the set 6-3.
Struff, ranked around 70 places below Bublik, served with more bite in the second set and struck six aces of his own, but the Kazakh stayed steady. With the set moving on serve, Bublik found the key break in the 10th game and served it out.
“I think I played a solid match,” Bublik said. “It’s never easy to face Jan. I knew what I had to do, what shots I have to execute to get more chances to win easily, and I think I did well in more important moments.”
The win also nudged a head-to-head that had been slightly against him, and came after a recent three-set meeting in Rotterdam.
Bublik said he is not putting too much weight on his career-high ranking, preferring to focus on the level of his tennis.
“It’s just a number,” he said. “If you play well, you’re going to have a better ranking. If you start losing matches, the ranking is going to go down very quickly. For me, it’s more about keeping my game and enjoying the moment.”
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships continues through Saturday, with tickets still available.
