All of the top-half seeds will be in quarterfinal action in Dubai on Thursday, as Novak Djokovic takes on Hubert Hurkacz and Daniil Medvedev battles Borna Coric. Both Hurkacz and Medvedev are coming off titles last week.
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (5) Hubert Hurkacz
Novak Djokovic is no stranger to his Dubai quarterfinal opponent. Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz has four previous matches with the world No. 1 and four losses to show for his efforts. Djokovic’s impeccable defense gobbles up Hurkacz’s attacking game. Hurkacz has managed to snag a couple sets on the quicker surfaces of Wimbledon and the Paris Masters, but even a speedy surface isn’t enough to level the playing field for Hurkacz. His game has not been historically precise enough to penetrate Djokovic’s retrieving for an entire match.
Djokovic endured a tricky first-round match in Dubai against Tomas Machac, a qualifier from the Czech Republic ranked 130th in the world. The Serb was rusty and Machac redlined for most of the last two sets before finally succumbing in a third-set breaker. Djokovic was back to his dominant ways in the second round against Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, dispatching the Dutchman 6-2, 6-3 to earn his spot in the quarterfinals.
Hurkacz faced a lucky loser in the first round, world No. 119 Alexander Shevchenko, who pushed the Pole to a third-set breaker. His second-round opponent was Russian qualifier Pavel Kotov, ranked No. 138 in the world. The No. 5 seed comes into the tournament off his first title win of 2023 in Marseille last week, so fatigue may have been a factor in his Dubai performance so far.
With Djokovic’s form vastly improved from his opener, expect this one to go his way.
Cheryl pick: Djokovic in 2
Ricky pick: Djokovic in 2
(3) Daniil Medvedev vs. (8) Borna Coric
Daniil Medvedev has been on a tear since his early ouster at the Australian Open at the hands of American Sebastian Korda. The Russian, who won both in Rotterdam and Doha, revealed in last week that he suffered a wrist injury in Melbourne because of the Dunlop balls used at the event. Medvedev said, “I want to talk a little bit more about it [the balls], because in Australia I felt like these balls were not good for hard courts–and in the match with Korda, before the match I had a very big pain in my wrist. But I thought, ‘okay, that’s my problem; so I’m not going to talk much about it.'”
Since then, Medvedev has gone on an 11-match winning streak. He breezed into the quarterfinals in Dubai with easy straight-set wins over lucky loser Matteo Arnaldi and Alexander Bublik. He faces a much more complicated opponent in Borna Coric, however.
Ranked 20th in the world, Coric has had an underwhelming start to the 2023 season. The Croat hasn’t won more than 2 matches in a row all year, with his best showings coming at the team events at the United Cup and Croatia’s Davis Cup tie against Austria. Coric advanced to the second round via a retirement by Dan Evans and then posted a solid win over Thanasi Kokkinakis to earn his spot in the quarterfinals.
Coric has an impressive 4-2 record over Medvedev, although they haven’t played since 2019. Even with Medvedev’s tiring lead-in, the Russian’s form has been impressive enough that he should advance in straight sets.
Cheryl pick: Medvedev in 2
Ricky pick: Medvedev in 2
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