Medvedev too hot to handle as he beats Rublev to win in Dubai

DUBAI: Russian Daniil Medvedev won his 18th tour-level title and his third in a row on Saturday by beating countryman and close friend Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-2 at the Dubai Championships on Saturday.

The victory extended the former No. 1’s winning streak to 14 matches.

Medvedev, on the second longest winning streak of his career, broke Rublev twice in each set and won the last five games on the hard court.

Rublev was the defending champion but quickly fell behind as he couldn’t hold his serve in the opening game.

Earlier in the week, Medvedev had given top-ranked Novak Djokovic his first defeat of the year in the semifinals. And the 2021 US Open champion defeated Andy Murray to win the Qatar Open last week after rallying past Jannik Sinner in the final of the Rotterdam Open in a purple patch of form.

“You always doubt what you do in practice, so I wasn’t really expecting what’s happened over the past three weeks, but I’m obviously very happy with how things have turned out, and looking forward to what’s next,” said Medvedev.

“The match tonight was very tactical, Andrey can cause trouble to anyone on Tour and every time we play he tries to make me suffer and I try to make him suffer, so I’m glad it went my way this time,” he added.

“I’ve felt at home since I arrived in Dubai. Even in the first match this week, I played a qualifier and the support was 50-50; great energy from the crowd here all week so thank you.”

Meanwhile, runner-up Rublev received a great ovation from the spectators before collecting his trophy, and responded: “Thank you very much, I’ve never had support like that.  I’m really grateful and thank you to all for coming and supporting all of us.”

He also expressed his deep admiration for what