Canadian number 1 Felix Auger-Aliassime continued his fine start to the year by safely progressing through to the semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships by beating Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 7-6 and will now face former champion Daniil Medvedev who sailed past Jenson Brooksby 6-2, 6-1.
Top seed Auger-Aliassime served 16 aces and won 83 per cent of points behind first serve, while saving both breakpoints he faced and finished the match with consecutive aces. He has now reached three semi-finals in a row after Montpellier and Rotterdam earlier this month, and will hope to go one better than last year here where he lost to Stefano Tsitsipas.
“It was difficult with the shade and the wind at the start of the match, but I think the second set was a very high level; Jiri stayed very tough,” he said. “He served great and I had to dig deep in that tiebreak to stay sharp, stay precise, and then, you know, be clinical.”
When asked about his thoughts of facing Medvedev next, he answered: “We have very different game styles. I’m going to try to come forward, he will try and make me miss. We’ll see who gets the better of the game plan. He’s had the better of me. It took me seven or eight times before beating him. He’s one of the greatest players of our generation. At times he never misses, so I’m going to need to try to find a way to make him miss a few balls. He’s yet to drop a set this week too, so it’s going to be tough.”
Medvedev breezed through his match against Brooksby in little under an hour in one of the most one-sided matches in the tournament’s recent history. The Russian had also beaten his opponent in straight sets when they met almost four years ago and was in sublime form during baseline exchanges.
“I’m really happy with my level and feel I’m getting better and better every match,” said Medvedev, who will now compete in his 53rd hard-court semi-final. “I feel like I play well in Dubai. I remember making semis one time here when, a little bit like Jenson today, I was not serving too well and had an issue with my shoulder. But I like to play here, I like the court, it plays pretty fast, which is not so common on the Tour right now, so it feels great and I’m looking forward to the semis.”
Elsewhere, fifth seed Andrey Rublev turned on the style to dismiss big-serving Arthur Rinderknech – who beat Jack Draper yesterday – 6-2, 6-4 inside 75 minutes with a combination of fearsome forehands, fine footwork and 19 winners. He was particularly potent during return games and regularly had his opponent in trouble and rushed. His conversion of the breakpoint to go 3-2 up in the first set was a perfect example of his tenacity and the Frenchman was left staring in disbelief.
“It’s tough to say something about my level because Arthur is the kind of player who breaks the rhythm,” said former champion Rublev who extended his record over Rinderknech to 4-0. “He doesn’t play rallies. He hits two or three shots, serves super hard, returns super hard, so there is no rhythm. That’s why it is important to have all the focus on the first two, three shots. All my game was based on those first two or three shots; to not let him get a good position to attack and instead force him to hit from tough positions. The opportunities he gave me; I was able to return well and aggressively to put pressure on him.”
“I’m happy to be back in the semi-final,” said Rublev, who is contesting his third semi-final of the season after reaching the final-four in Hong Kong and last week in Doha. “Arthur is a tough player. We have had great battles in the past, so I’m really happy that I was able to win in straight sets, especially after a long and tough [quarterfinal] match, to be able to win in straight sets helps a lot as I’ll have more time to recover.”
The final match of the day saw an upset where Tallon Griekspoor survived facing 16 aces and defeated in-form Jakub Mensik 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
“I thought I started off really, really well,” said Griekspoor who beat Alexander Bublik yesterday. “Broke him with a good game from my side. I didn’t really have any problems. It shifted a little bit in the second set, I didn’t make as many first serves and he started to serve better. At the beginning of the third set, I had to up my game, serve better, which I really did. In the end I started to return really well, so I am very pleased with the win.”
