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ATP: Champion Daniil Medvedev in Dubai.  Third title in three weeks

ATP: Champion Daniil Medvedev in Dubai. Third title in three weeks

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Back to the fore. Russian Daniel Medvedev was crowned the Dubai Championship, his third title in as many weeks, after Rotterdam (Netherlands) and then Doha (Qatar), on Saturday against compatriot Andrei Rublev 6-2, 6-2.

The world number one had already defeated the current King of the Ring, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, in the semi-finals of the ATP 500 6-4, 6-4 on Friday, in a statement-making victory. .

More precise and solid than Rublev, world number 6, Medvedev won his 14th straight match, to claim, at the age of 27, the 18th title of his career.

After an early elimination at the Australian Open, his first Grand Slam lifter of the year, the world No. 7 has regained his confidence and will undoubtedly be one of the players to watch during the two American Masters 1000 matches that will await the ATP circuit by surprise: Indian Wells (March 8-19) and Miami (March 22-April 2).

Medvedev admitted after the match that “the start of the year was not perfect”. I’m clearly feeling better and I’m very happy with these 3 weeks. Sometimes it feels like doing the right things, doing the right things and losing matches. And sometimes we get the impression of not doing more and vice versa. Gives a lot of confidence when everything goes this way. »

Russian mountains

His US Open success in 2021 led to new Grand Slam titles, but after that Medvedev experienced ups and downs, as he struggled to assert himself at the biggest tournaments, his emergence atop world tennis.

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Last year, he only won twice, at Los Cabos (Mexico), ATP 250, and then Vienna (Austria), ATP 500, during a season below expectations.

His last three titles seem to indicate that the Russian has managed to regain the confidence that allowed him to dominate, in addition to the ATP Finals (2020), four Masters 1000: Cincinnati (USA) and Shanghai (China) in 2019, then Paris (2020) and Canada, in Toronto (2021).

After his last win in Doha over Scotsman Andy Murray last week, Medvedev has already made clear his good results with a new confidence: “It’s all about confidence, and certainly he can come back very quickly, but he can also leave so quickly with a defeat. »

On Saturday, Rublev, who is two years younger than Medvedev, missed any opportunity to turn the tide of the match when he got angry after breaking 2-2 in the second set (3-2), and quickly lost the next three matches.

Medvedev explained on Saturday, “It was very tactical, Andrei is able to hurt everyone in the ring. Today I dominated the match, but the next match may be another story.”