Top-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 instantly victory set the level for a last-four fit in opposition to Medvedev, who defeated Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 within the nightcap on the hard-court match.
“I’m playing good right now but when you play Novak, Novak is always the favorite,” Medvedev stated in his on-court interview. “He’s enjoying nice, shifting nice. I all the time had some excellent fights with him, so I’m hoping for my highest form the following day as a result of that is the handiest option to beat him.”
Djokovic is enjoying in his first tournament since profitable the Australian Open for his record-equalling twenty second Grand Slam singles name. The 35-year-old Serb had a partly torn hamstring when he captured his tenth name at Melbourne Park.
Djokovic stepped forward to 15-0 this season and hasn’t misplaced since losing the Paris Masters ultimate to Holger Rune final November. He adopted that up by way of profitable the ATP Finals name in Turin.
Defending Dubai champion Andrey Rublev will face Alexander Zverev within the different semifinal fit.
Rublev complicated by way of defeating Botic van de Zandschulp 6–3, 7–6 (3). Zverev crowned Lorenzo Sonego 7–5, 6–4.
It will likely be Zverev’s first semifinal for the reason that French Open final June, when he injured his proper ankle whilst enjoying in opposition to Rafael Nadal. He underwent surgical procedure days later to fix torn ligaments.
“It’s been a very difficult time for me the last, I would say, nine months,” the 25-year-old German, who was once the runner-up on the 2020 US Open, stated in his on-court interview. “The hard work is paying off and I’m extremely happy with what the progress is and how I’m playing right now.”
Rublev, a 25-year-old Russian who’s ranked No. 6, reached the semifinals for the 3rd instantly yr.
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