Daniil Medvedev won the Dubai Tennis Championships in rather unfortunate circumstances.
After a superb semi-final performance against Andrey Rublev, Dutch star Tallon Griekspoor withdrew from the final due to injury, handing Medvedev the title.
The title win is Medvedev’s 23rd on the ATP Tour, and marks the first occasion on which the Russian has won an event twice.
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The 30-year-old has been in fine form to start the year and could emerge as a dark horse contender for Grand Slam titles later in the 2026 calendar.
Medvedev picked up his second title of the year in Dubai following his title win in Brisbane, and he has now joined an exclusive list alongside Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
Daniil Medvedev is the third man to win multiple Dubai Tennis Championships titles
With victory in Dubai, Medvedev has entered the record books alongside Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
Medvedev has become just the third player to win more than one title at the event since its creation in 1993.
Federer and Djokovic are the only other players to do so. Federer has won the title a record eight times, while Djokovic has triumphed at the event on five occasions.
Federer won his first title at the event in 2003, and his last in 2019.
Federer’s last title in Dubai was his 100th on the ATP Tour. He went on to win 103 in total.
The Swiss star is second all-time in ATP titles won, behind only Jimmy Connors, who won 109.
After winning his eighth and final title in Dubai, Federer said: “Well, now I know a lot of people always ask me about, Are you going to go for 109? Winning titles, to answer the question, is not easy.
Roger Federer’s eight Dubai triumphs…
| Year | Opponent in the Final | Score |
| 2003 | Jiri Novak | 6-1, 7-6 |
| 2004 | Feliciano Lopez | 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 |
| 2005 | Ivan Ljubicic | 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 |
| 2007 | Mikhail Youzhny | 6-4, 6-3 |
| 2012 | Andy Murray | 7-5, 6-4 |
| 2014 | Tomas Berdych | 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 |
| 2015 | Novak Djokovic | 6-3, 7-5 |
| 2019 | Stefanos Tsitsipas | 6-3, 6-4 |
“Winning five matches in six days or five matches in five days, it takes a different type of fitness. Sometimes you can lose them in the semis.
“You can play a great tournament, play a brutal semis, you get unlucky sometimes with the schedule, whatever it may be. You could lose the finals not because the opponent is better, just sometimes it’s like that.
“That’s why you have to be fit on many fronts: mentally, physically, also your game has to translate. You have to be able to beat different types of players, not just the grinders, not just the big servers, not just the attacking players. You have to be able to beat them all in successive days.
“I think that’s a tricky thing to do for a lot of players. That’s why you have to improve your game so much that you can do that.
“Only a few players can do that every year, five, six, seven times or more during a single year.
What would have happened if Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner played at the same time as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal?
“For that you need to be able to adapt your game to conditions, got to be able to play through the pain because I’ve been hurt or sick many times during events that I ended up winning. Some of them being slams, as well.
“You just got to figure it out. It’s hard, yeah.”
Djokovic, meanwhile, first won the event in 2009 and captured his fifth title in 2020. Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4 in the 2020 final, as Federer also did in 2019.
Roger Federer’s two losses in the Dubai Tennis Championships final
In 2006, Federer suffered the first of two Dubai Championships final losses.
The Swiss maestro was defeated by Rafael Nadal in the 2006 final, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6. Five years later, Federer was defeated by Novak Djokovic in the final, 6-3, 7-5.
After losing the 2011 final, Federer was asked by a reporter: “Do you think it’s going to be between you and Djokovic and Rafa? Is it going to be like three people fighting for the top?”
“I mean, what can I tell you?” Federer replied. “At the moment it looks like it, but Soderling hasn’t been playing bad himself if you look at his win/loss record this year; Murray was in the finals again at the Australian Open, so he’s obviously in the conversation.
“After that, you have guys tearing apart a few of the clay court tournaments in other parts of world. So I think the top 5 players have played really well the last six months. Someone always has to win one tournament. At the end of the day, we’ve been able to share those a little bit to be honest.
“So I don’t feel it’s a three-horse race right now. Rafa still is the favorite. He’s won three of the four slams. Novak maybe has not lost a match yet this season, but the season is still really short. I’ve been playing well. Murray has been playing well.
“I mean, I don’t know. I think we’ll know more sort of after Wimbledon. But I don’t expect any crazy changes at the top. They’ve all been around for a while and know how it works. We’ll see how it goes.”
