Dubai, Mar 2: Ugo Humbert earned his fourth Top 5 win on Friday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where he defeated top seed Daniil Medvedev 7-5, 6-3 to reach his second tour-level final of the season.The Frenchman played aggressively throughout the one-hour, 50-minute clash. He pushed defending champion Medvedev wide and opened up the court with his sliding lefty serve to take control of points in the first set. He then recovered from squandering a break advantage in the second set to triumph, roaring after earning victory.
“I played the perfect match today,” Humbert said. “One of my best matches. It is never easy to play against Daniil but I was ready to play some rallies. With my title at the beginning of the year, I had a lot of confidence and tried to bring everything to court.”
Humbert saved seven of the eight break points he faced and hit 31 winners, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and now leads Medvedev 3-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
Humbert holds a 12-3 record on the season, having triumphed on home soil in Marseille. He will play for his sixth tour-level trophy and second ATP 500 crown against Alexander Bublik on Saturday. Humbert, currently No. 15 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, won his only previous ATP 500 title in Halle in 2021. He has never lost a tour-level final.
Medvedev was competing for the first time since he reached the final at the Australian Open last month. Last year, Medvedev lifted the trophy at the ATP 500 in Dubai. He then reached the final in Indian Wells and clinched the crown in Miami.
Meanwhile, Alexander Bublik will play for his fifth tour-level title after he advanced to his 11th tour-level final on Friday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Bublik advanced in unusual circumstances. The seventh seed was leading 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-5 when Andrey Rublev was defaulted for unsportsmanlike conduct after making comments to a line judge after two hours and 31 minutes.