Medvedev, the champion of Rotterdam and Doha, broke the serve of his opponent, who made many mistakes, twice before clinching the first set with a powerful forehand..
In his first tournament after winning the Adelaide and Australian Open titles, Djokovic kicked off his career with a hard-fought victory over Czech qualifier Tomas Makhach..
The 35-year-old Djokovic improved after trailing 5-2 in the first set but dropped serve early in the second..
This was the perfect start for Medvedev, who took advantage of the opportunity to advance 4-2 in the result and go on to achieve the fifth victory over Djokovic in 14 matches that brought them together, and the 13th consecutive victory..
Earlier, Rublev qualified for the final after defeating Alexander Zverev for the first time in his career, 6-4, 7-6, after wasting five chances to win..
“I thought the match would go into the third set,” said Rublev, who is bidding for his 13th ATP title on Saturday. “I was mentally preparing for that, but somehow I managed to save a set point.”“.
It was Zverev’s first semi-final appearance since he injured his ankle at the French Open. The German player gave glimpses of the performance that enabled him to reach second place in the world rankings last year.
But Rublev raised the bar to avoid trouble.
He said, “I had some points to decide the match, but he played well. When the score was 9-9 (in the tie-break), I received the serve well and said to myself: Well, let’s try to settle here. I won a crazy exchange and I was lucky.”
#Russian #bear #inflicts #Joker #seasons #defeat #Dubai #final