Only one unseeded players remains in Dubai, as Dan Evans will try to keep his run going at the expense of Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday. The other semifinal pits a red-hot Novak Djokovic against a similarly in-form Gael Monfils.
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (3) Gael Monfils
It will be the two match wins leaders on tour this season when Djokovic and Monfils battle for a spot in the Dubai Duty Free Championships final on Friday. Djokovic is a perfect 16-0 in 2020, with a team title at the ATP Cup, another Australian Open title, and Dubai victories over Malek Jaziri, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Karen Khachanov. Monfils is 16-2 with back-to-back titles in Montpellier and Rotterdam plus wins this week at the expense of Marton Fucsovics, Yasutaka Uchiyama, and Richard Gasquet.
Sixteen is an important number for another reason, too. Djokovic is 16-0 lifetime against Monfils at the ATP level–and, no, that is not a misprint. The top-ranked Serb is 14-0 on hard courts, a record that includes a 6-3, 6-2 beatdown earlier this year at the ATP Cup. Based on that dominance and his daunting current form (no Dubai opponent has won more than three games in a set), Djokovic should roll.
Pick: Djokovic in 2 losing 5-7 games
[crowdsignal poll=10512128]
Dan Evans vs. (2) Stefanos Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas and Evans will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers on Friday. Although Tsitsipas has not been able to match the consistency of Djokovic and Monfils in 2020, he is rounding into form just in time for upcoming Masters 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami. The sixth-ranked Greek is coming off a title in Marseille and so far in Dubai he has defeated Pablo Carreno Busta, Alexander Bublik, and Jan Lennard Struff.
Evans may not be playing on quite a full tank of gas, either, as he survived three difficult matches to earn a surprising spot in the semifinals. The 37th-ranked Brit outlasted Fabio Fognini 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours and 39 minutes, beat Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(7) in two hours and 44 minutes, and upset Andrey Rublev 6-2, 7-6(9) in two hours and 11 minutes. Tsitsipas has just as much variety as Evans and will also win more free points on serve, which will be key what should be a physical contest.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 2
[crowdsignal poll=10512071]
WYG?
The actual tour HTH of Nole vs. Monfils is 14-0, unless you are counting their Davis Cup and Olympic matches, but DC is not technically a tour match. As for the matchup, Nole is playing quite well here indeed, but Monfils is playing his best tennis ever, hasn’t been tested much here so should be pretty fresh to play a good match, so this match could be closer than their past ones, Nole takes it 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Tsitsipas has been pushed quite far by guys he should be beating more handily, close matches, so form has dropped a bit from last week, Evans must have played great to beat Rublev in 2 and playing 2 3 setters before won’t likely be a factor, I’ll take Evans 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
ATP level = main tour
So it’s 14-0 then, not 16, if not counting Olympics and DC.
Olympics and DC ain’t lower level
lower level is Challengers and Futures
No one said anything about lower level, you said ATP tour, Olympics and DC are not ATP tour, well at least DC is not, Olympics might be.
monfils in 3
welp
Novak in 2 and Tsitsipas in 3.
solid picks
Nobody beats Gael Monfils 17 times in a row! Except…oh well. (I dunno if Novak will be the GOAT but he IS better than Connors was.)
Tsitsi over Evans in 2.
Connors different era, not fair to compare
Evans was brilliant against Rublev and could well seriously test Tsitsipas here. As Ricky alludes to there is not such a great variety edge in his favour here, but That backhand slice Evan’s builds his game around is magic of the sort tsitsipas will rarely have encountered, and I am very interested to see how Tsitsipas’ game matches up with it.
Tsitsipas played great
Fantastic performance. Almost perfect. Should be a great final
Djoko pulls out a rabbit again.. another match won after facing match points😳
Welp, Gael had a better game plan this time, just not quite good enough. I’d call him a choker, but he has played a lot of tennis in the past 3 weeks so I’ll be charitable and say he just ran out of gas in the 2nd set TB. Maybe he can win #18.
he choked!
Both of these matches were insanely good, esp. Tsitsipas-Evans, those rallies, so many long good ones, the score does not do Evans justice, but Tsitsipas was just too good.
Tsitsi the new Fed ?