Novak Djokovic’s run from the beginning of 2023 stopped tonight (Friday) after 15 victories, when the Serbian lost 6:4, 6:4 to Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals of the Dubai tournament, and was defeated for the first time this year. The Russian (12th in the world, ranked 3rd in the tournament) broke a streak of four losses against “Nola”, which began after the victory over him in the final of the US Open Championship in 2021.
Djokovic, who has not lost an official match since Nov. 6 against Holger Röne, failed to match Ivan Lendl’s 94th career title and will have to wait at least another year to finish as Dubai tournament champion for the sixth time.
Medvedev got two consecutive breaks en route to escaping to 2:5 in the first set, and although he didn’t hold serve once after that, he took the lead in the match. Already in the first game of the second set, the Russian achieved another break, which he kept until the end to come out with his 13th victory in a row. Another victory tomorrow will guarantee Medvedev a third title in a row, after finishing as champions in Rotterdam and Doha last month.
Earlier, Andrei Rublev got the first ticket to the finals, so two Russian players will meet in the fight for the title. Rublev (6th in the round, 2nd in the tournament) managed to defeat the German Sasha Zverev (16th in the world, 7th in Dubai) for the first time in his career, after six losses. Zverev was broken no less than three times in the first set: in the opening game, after he broke himself and equalized to 2:2, and in the game that decided the set and made it 3:6 for Rublev. In the second set, none of them achieved a break, and after a long tie breaker that ended at 9:11, the Russian closed 6:7 and 0:2 in the match on the way to the final.