Prime-ranked Novak Djokovic beat Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 7-5 on Thursday and can face former No. 1 Daniil Medvedev within the semifinals on the Dubai Championships.
The five-time Dubai champion’s twentieth straight victory set the stage for a last-four match in opposition to Medvedev, who defeated Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 within the nightcap on the hard-court match.
“I am taking part in good proper now however if you play Novak, Novak is at all times the favourite,” Medvedev stated in his on-court interview. “He is taking part in nice, shifting nice. I at all times had some good fights with him, so I am hoping for my greatest form tomorrow as a result of that is the one method to beat him.”
Djokovic is taking part in in his first occasion since successful the Australian Open for his record-equaling twenty second Grand Slam singles title. The 35-year-old Serb had {a partially} torn hamstring when he captured his tenth title at Melbourne Park.
Djokovic improved to 15-0 this season and hasn’t misplaced since dropping the Paris Masters closing to Holger Rune final November. He adopted that up by successful the ATP Finals title in Turin.
Defending Dubai champion Andrey Rublev will face Alexander Zverev within the different semifinal match.
Rublev superior by defeating Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 7-6 (3). Zverev topped Lorenzo Sonego 7-5, 6-4.
Will probably be Zverev’s first semifinal because the French Open final June, when he injured his proper ankle whereas taking part in in opposition to Rafael Nadal. He underwent surgical procedure days later to restore torn ligaments.
“It has been a really tough time for me the final, I might say, 9 months,” the 25-year-old German, who was the runner-up on the 2020 U.S. Open, stated in his on-court interview. “The arduous work is paying off and I’m extraordinarily proud of what the progress is and the way I’m taking part in proper now.”
Rublev, a 25-year-old Russian who’s ranked No. 6, reached the semifinals for the third straight yr.
This story has been printed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content.