Two and a half months that he hadn’t wasted. We thought Novak Djokovic was in great shape and almost unstoppable. The Serbian champion, last winner of the Australian Open in Melbourne, was knocked out this Friday in the semi-finals in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) in two sets (6-4, 6-4) by the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who has been recovering a bit since mid-January.
Medvedev broke twice in the first set, in turn lost his serve once in stride before concluding without shaking. In the second set, “Nole” lost his face-off from the start, then failed to create the slightest equalizing ball on the service of the world No. 7.
The last defeat of Djokovic, who remained on 16 wins in a row and who broke the record for the number of weeks as world No. 1 (378) at the start of the week, dated from December 20 last. The Serb had been beaten (6-3, 6-4) by the German Alexander Zverev in an exhibition match in the United Arab Emirates. In an official match, we have to go back to the Paris-Bercy Masters final (victory in three sets for Dane Holger Rune), at the beginning of November.
For his part, Daniil Medvedev, who had experienced a lot of setbacks last year, continues with a 13th consecutive success. Recent winner of the Rotterdam and Doha tournaments, the Russian will face in the final his compatriot Andrey Rublev, who took out Zverev in two sets (6-3, 7-6).