Daniil Medvedev raced to victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Thursday to reach the Dubai semi-finals and continue his excellent start to the year.
The world number four wasted little time in wrapping up a 6-2, 6-3 win and will face Ugo Humbert who on Thursday beat Hubert Hurkacz in their quarter-final. Humbert won 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.
“Alejandro can play very well,” Medvedev said on Thursday.
“Sometimes during matches he can have a little down moment and then he goes up.
“I knew that no matter the score, I needed to go until the last point.”
The Russian is playing in just his second tournament of the season after reaching the Australian Open final, where he suffered an agonising defeat by Jannik Sinner after leading by two sets.
Reigning champion Medvedev is bidding to defend an ATP title for the first time, having won 20 trophies at Tour-level events in his career but all at different tournaments. Medvedev eased through the opening set with breaks in the sixth and eighth games.
He powered into a 4-0 lead in the second and sealed victory on his first match point, despite a brief rally from Davidovich Fokina, who has now lost all four of his meetings with Medvedev.
Medvedev had to come from a set down against Lorenzo Sonego in the previous round, but said he may have been struggling with an illness.
“I don’t know what happened yesterday. A few people around me got a small virus, so maybe it is this,” he said. “Some days that happens but I am happy today happened. I am not at my best shape yet but we have some more matches.”
Alexander Bublik and Andrey Rublev will meet in the other semi-final after both were beneficiaries of retirements in their last-eight matches. Kazakhstan’s Bublik led 6-4, 4-1 when his opponent Jiri Lehecka quit their tie with injury.
Second seed Rublev was 6-4, 4-3 ahead when American Sebastian Korda left the court in the second quarter-final. The win ended a run of three successive quarter-final exits for world number five Rublev.
De Minaur into Acapulco QFs; Tsitsipas also wins
Alex de Minaur has been in imperious form during his Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC title defence, losing only seven games en route to the quarter-finals. According to the Australian, who defeated Sebastian Ofner 6-1, 6-3 to make the last eight, one thing is always behind his success.
“I’ve got a very big heart, I’ll tell you that,” De Minaur said in his post-match interview.
“This heart is going to keep me going, no matter what the score is, where I’m at, what stage of my career I am (in). It’s what’s gotten me to this point so far, and it’s what’s going to hopefully get me further and further. It’s all about trying to put as much pressure as I can on my opponents every single service game,” De Minaur said. “And no matter what the result is in that game, just always try to stay in there and try to win a couple points here and there. To be honest, I don’t think I’m doing anything special out there. I’m just asking the question.”
The Australian, who is No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings, will next play fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who ousted Italian qualifier Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 7-6(6).
The 10-time ATP Tour titlist served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but was unable to convert. Tsitsipas also trailed 5/2 in the ensuing tie-break, but remained calm under pressure to emerge victorious in straight sets.
Briton Jack Draper won a battle of lefties against Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3, 6-0 in the first completed match of the evening. The Briton hit 11 aces and saved all three break points he faced to capture the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head encounter. He will next play Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, who eliminated German Daniel Altmaier 6-4, 6-4.
German lefty Dominik Koepfer upset eighth seed Frances Tiafoe 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. The former college tennis star hit 11 aces and won a higher rate of second-serve points (68%) than he did first-serve points (67%).
Aside from Tiafoe’s loss, it proved a good day for Top 20 players in the PIF ATP Rankings in Acapulco. Holger Rune, Casper Ruud and Ben Shelton all advanced to the quarter-finals with victories late in the day in Mexico.
Rune beat Aleksandar Kovacevic 7-6(5), 6-2 to set a last-eight meeting with Koepfer.
The No. 11-ranked Ruud downed Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 7-5.
The Norwegian next faces a showdown with lefty Shelton, who pulled through a thrilling clash with Matteo Arnaldi 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-3 to reach his third tour-level quarter-final of the year.