TENNIS – DANIIL Medvedev was awarded the Dubai Tennis Championships title after his opponent Tallon Griekspoor withdrew due to an injury he suffered in the semi-finals, tournament organisers said yesterday.
Russian Medvedev was chasing a second title in Dubai after he beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in the last four, and the former world number one reached the final without dropping a set.
Griekspoor said after his straight-sets win over Andrey Rublev that he was struggling with a hamstring injury and would have retired had he lost the second set.
“Not how I want to win a final. Hoping the injury for Griekspoor is not too bad and wishing him a speedy recovery,” Medvedev wrote on X.
“That’s what is crazy about it. I never did it in any city in the world, and the first time I do it, it’s a walkover,” he told the ATP Tour website.
“I played a great tournament, the four matches I played. Of course I wanted to play the final, but it is what it is.”
Organisers had confirmed earlier yesterday that the title match at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium was set to go ahead despite Iranian attacks on the UAE throughout the day.
The tour now moves to California for the ATP Masters 1000 at Indian Wells, but with UAE airspace closed and flights suspended, the participation of several players – especially Medvedev and Griekspoor – is in doubt.
His representative told the New York Times, external they were trying to establish how Medvedev could travel to California for next week’s Indian Wells tournament after the UAE “partially and temporarily” closed its airspace.
Earlier, Briton Henry Patten and Finland’s Harri Heliovaara sealed back-to-back men’s doubles titles with a 7-5 7-5 victory over Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic in Dubai.
Patten and Heliovaara have won three of their four tournaments together this year.
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