Daniil Medvedev is one victory away from repeating a title run for the first time in his career after he punched his ticket to the Dubai final with a 6-4, 6-2 success over top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime on Friday.
Medvedev, a former world number one, boasts 22 career titles but has bizarrely never won the same tournament twice.
The ex-US Open champion has a chance to change that when he takes on Dutch world number 25 Tallon Griekspoor in the final on Saturday in Dubai, where he lifted the trophy in 2023.
“If you give me some fast courts like they were before, maybe I can do something like this, but there aren’t many courts like this on the tour anymore,” said Medvedev, who is through to the 42nd final of his career.
“If I manage to put (on an) even better performance tomorrow, I have a chance to win,” he added.
Griekspoor shocked Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) in a match that included controversy.
After saving three break points to hold for 6-5 in the opening set, Griekspoor took an off-court medical timeout for what appeared to be a groin/hamstring injury.
Griekspoor returned several minutes later, broke Rublev’s serve and took the opening set.
The 29-year-old Dutchman was putting on a brilliant serving performance despite his mobility issues and he kept it up in the second set.
The contest turned into an ace-fest and the set fittingly went to a tiebreak.
Rublev squandered a 3-0 lead in the breaker and two set points from 6-4 up as Griekspoor once again found his best tennis.
“I have no idea how I pulled off this one,” said Griekspoor, who produced 19 aces to Rublev’s 20.
“I could barely walk from the end of the first set. I guess unlucky and lucky at the same time.
“And then I got very lucky in the tiebreak to win it in two sets. Because if this was going three, it was going to be an extremely hard story for me,” he added.
Griekspoor’s third consecutive top-20 win of the week earned him a spot in a sixth tour-level final – his second at the 500 level.
It is unclear how fit he will be for his final against Medvedev on Saturday though.
“I landed with a serve and I felt something in my hamstring,” Griekspoor said of his injury.
“I’m just going to try to recover as well as possible, do everything I can and hopefully be ready for tomorrow,” he added.
Rublev was understandably disappointed.
“Tallon, I guess he was not feeling well, but out of it he did as best as he could. He started to go for the shots and all of them went through,” he said.
“I don’t know if he will be able to play tomorrow, but today was his day.”
Earlier on centre court, Medvedev played a perfect match to improve his record against Auger-Aliassime to 8-2.
In a high-quality semi-final, the players were neck and neck through the first nine games before a perfectly-struck lob from Medvedev drew the error that gave the third seed a set point on the Canadian’s serve.
Medvedev converted it on the back of a 24-shot rally to secure a one-set lead in 44 minutes.
The 30-year-old kept pressuring the Auger-Aliassime serve and broke in game four on his way to a 4-1 advantage in the second set and he never looked back, wrapping up the win in one hour and 23 minutes.
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