Daniil Medvedev lifted the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships men’s singles trophy in unusual circumstances on February 28, after Tallon Griekspoor was forced to withdraw from the final with a left hamstring injury picked up during his semifinal win over the seeded 5th Andrey Rublev.
It was not the ending Medvedev wanted, and he said so openly during the ceremony, “Not the way I wanted to win, but I wish Tallon a speedy recovery,” he said during the ceremony. In his interview, he explained what he had noticed the day before and how these things can change overnight: “Sometimes they get easier and you can play, like with some soreness, and sometimes they get worse. I guess it got worse.” And when he was asked about the strange fact that this is the first time he has won the same tournament twice, he laughed and said, “I never did it in any city in the world, and the first time I do it, it’s a walkover. That’s how life is sometimes, fairly enough.”
Even if the final was not played, Medvedev’s week in Dubai was strong and clean. He reached the title match without dropping a set, beating Shang Juncheng, Stan Wawrinka, and Jenson Brooksby, then producing a sharp semifinal win over top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-4 6-2 to book his place in the final.
Griekspoor’s run to the final deserved a better finish. He had fought through a strong field and produced one of the wins of his career in the semifinals against Rublev, but his body simply wouldn’t allow him to take the court for the biggest match of the week.
Griekspoor, meanwhile, said the injury became serious enough that he simply could not take the court. “Unfortunately, I hurt myself during the semifinals. I went to the hospital this morning and had a couple of scans, which showed something serious,” he said on court. Dubai did not get the final it hoped for, but it still ended with a champion who had been the most consistent player in the draw, and with two on court speeches that felt honest, one man celebrating a strong week, the other accepting the toughest kind of disappointment.
In many ways, this was the kind of week that shows why Dubai is such a big stop on the Middle East swing. Doha and Dubai, year after year, bring top level tennis to the region, and for Asian tennis fans it matters because so many players from Asia spend this part of the season here with training, competing, and getting their rhythm early in the season in front of packed home crowds. This year, the title was decided in an unfortunate way, but the feeling around the stadium was still excellent. For a few hours, people came to watch sport, to switch off, and to feel normal again. And with the region going through a difficult time because of the ongoing conflict, events like this quietly show what tennis can do. It’s not making any political point, but to bring people together and give everyone a small break from the tension outside.
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