Stefanos Tsitsipas enjoyed significant head-to-head advantages in the first two rounds of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. He led Lorenzo Sonego 3-0 going into their first-round encounter held an 8-1 lead over Karen Khachanov in advance of their showdown in the last 16.
Unsurprisingly, Tsitsipas maintained his mastery of those matchups. The 11th-ranked Greek disposed of Sonego 7-6(4), 6-3 before holding off Khachanov 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-4.
Tsitsipas will face Matteo Berrettini in the quarterfinals on Thursday, and the No. 4 seed leads that head-to-head series 4-1 overall (3-1 on the main tour). All three of their hard-court contests have gone Tsitsipas’ way, although all three sets went to tiebreakers during 2017 U.S. Open qualifying and he needed a fourth-set ‘breaker to get past Berrettini at the 2019 Australia Open.
There are some reasons to think that Berrettini will avoid the same fate as Sonego and Khachanov and instead turn the tide against Tsitsipas. After all, the 30th-ranked Italian won their most recent meeting–albeit on clay–via a 7-6(6), 7-5 decision last summer in Gstaad. Moreover, Berrettini is playing great tennis in the Middle East. The 28-year-old upset Novak Djokovic en route to the Doha quarterfinals this past week and now he finds himself in the Dubai quarters following straight-set victories over Gael Monfils and Christopher O’Connell.
Even after winning two matches in Dubai, Tsitsipas is still just 5-4 for his 2025 campaign. Berrettini is the better player right now and should be able to continue his fine form.
Pick: Berrettini in 3
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Berretini agreed. That was khachanovs match to lose as he could’ve won it in 2. Made a lot of mistakes. Besides that Tsitsipas isn’t the same player he used to be. He’s a far cry from his top player status and is a former shell of himself. He can still produce some good results from time to time but Tsitsipas finds himself outmatched coming into this one against the in form Berretini.
Khachanov didn’t win in 2 because he made those mistakes. The reason he won the 1st was tsitsipas’ mistakes. What I mean is, that you can’t say “he lost because he made mistakes”, for any player. At this level to win you must avoid mistakes, when you don’t avoid it you just lose. Of course berretini is in form and has the upper hand, but tsitsipas is the better player and can always catch his best level to win.
Interesting battle of the sh backhand.It really depends on the surface, to say who is the better player ,assuming both in form.
Berrettini BH looking surprisingly good the last 2 weeks