Daniil Medvedev wrapped up his third ATP title in as many weeks on Saturday as he beat longtime rival Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-2 to win the Dubai event for the first time.
The former No. 1 and 2021 US Open winner added the desert trophy to honours earned last month in Rotterdam and Doha, bringing his career total to 18.
Medvedev duplicated the showings of Casper Ruud (July, 2021) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (October, 2022) in winning three in three weeks at the Tour level.
He has now won his last 14 matches; victory was a comeback of sorts for Medvedev who had lost his last two meetings with Rublev but had defeated his rival four times previously since 2019.
Rublev, seeded second, was denied the chance to defend the trophy he won here a year ago. He now trails in the series 2-5.
“It’s amazing,” the winner said, “The start of the year was not perfect.
When you don’t win tournaments you start to doubt – I was doubting a lot.”
.Medvedev hit 19 winners (including nine aces) and just eight unforced while Rublev had seven winners and 22 miscues.
“It all feels better now, I’m happy with the past three weeks and looking forward to the next ones.
Medvedev spent 38 minutes in earning the opening set with two breaks of his rival since childhood in a hard-hitting start to the final.
The seventh-seeded Medvedev posted a love game for 1-all in the second and earned the break he needed in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead.
He followed that up with an insurance break for 5-2 and served out the match a game later as he kept his hot streak alive after just 69 minutes on the second of three match points.
“A lot of shots were landing at this tournament,” the winner said. “That helps the confidence a lot.
“It was a very tactical match, Andrey can cause a lot of trouble to everyone on the Tour.
“He always tries to make me suffer and I do the same, I managed to be on top today, but the next match could be a different story.”
Main photo:- Daniil Medvedev wins his third trophy in a row and his first in Dubai by ATPTour.com
