The ATP 500 event in Dubai is about to begin, headlined by Daniil Medvedev and Alex de Minaur – with defending champion Ugo Humbert facing a tough opener.
At the most recent edition, the Frenchman defeated Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-3 in the final to lift his sixth career singles title.
Past winners include Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray.
Daniil Medvedev
World No 6 Daniil Medvedev is the event’s top seed.
The Russian is 550 points behind world No 5 Casper Ruud in the rankings, with the Norwegian participating at the ATP 500 in Acapulco – meaning Medvedev must go further than the two-time Grand Slam finalist during their respective tournaments, if he wants to close the gap.
In 2023, Medvedev won the title in Dubai after he defeated Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-2 in the final.
The world No 6 opens his Dubai campaign against the dangerous Jan-Lennard Struff. The German lifted the men’s doubles title in Dubai in 2024, but recently lost to Medvedev at the Marseille event in straight sets.
In the second round, the Russian will face either Zhizhen Zhang or the huge-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. The latter opponent would be particularly dangerous in the quick conditions, having won the title in Basel at the end of 2024, before reaching the semi-finals of Brisbane at the beginning of 2025. Mpetshi Perricard did withdraw from his last scheduled event, in Rotterdam, but this was attributed to illness.
A hypothetical quarterfinal for Medvedev would likely feature one of Tallon Griekspoor, Jiri Lehecka, or – more likely – Ugo Humbert. The Frenchman won the event at the 2024 edition, and looks in similarly imperious form, recently lifting the title in Marseille.
In the last four, should he make it, the former US Open champion is projected to face Stefanos Tsitsipas or Grigor Dimitrov.
Alex de Minaur
2025 will mark Alex de Minaur’s third participation at the Dubai event, having also played in 2021 and 2022.
The Australian, however, has not won a match at the tournament and will look to end that streak against ATP veteran Marin Cilic. The Croat played an impressive match against Carlos Alcaraz at the Qatar Open, with the world No 2 ultimately prevailing 6-4, 6-4. Cilic has a competitive 2-2 head-to-head with de Minaur.
In the second round, the world No 8 will likely face fellow countryman Alexei Popyrin who is yet to win a match this season. Popyrin may be far from looking like the player who defeated Novak Djokovic at the 2024 US Open, but he did claim victory in his most recent hard-court match against de Minaur,
The world No 8 is projected to face the eighth seed Arthur Fils in the quarterfinals, but the Frenchman has lost as many matches as he has won in 2025. A more likely last-eight opponent is Felix Auger-Aliassime, who lost a nail-biting third-set tiebreak to Andrey Rublev during their semi-final match in Doha. The Canadian has looked in sensational form, winning a title in both Adelaide and Montpeiller in 2025, and was the victor in both of his hard-court clashes against the Australian.
Alex de Minaur is projected to face either Andrey Rublev or Jack Draper in the semi-finals, both of whom made the final at the Qatar Open. The Australian would likely rather face the Brit, holding a 4-1 lead in their head-to-head compared to a 4-4 record with respect to the Russian.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas against Lorenzo Sonego
Stefanos Tsitsipas will open his Dubai campaign against Lorenzo Sonego.
The Italian has had a relatively disappointing few weeks, but did reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2025 Australian Open, where he lost to American Ben Shelton in four sets.
Sonego has a 3-0 deficit in head-to-head matches with the Greek, but their last hard-court meeting did go to a third set and is aided further by Tsitsipas’ lack of consistent form.
Ugo Humbert against Jiri Lehecka
Ugo Humbert will play Jiri Lehecka in the opening round, with both players displaying high-quality levels of play in recent weeks. As stated earlier, the Frenchman won the title in Marseille, with the Czech defeating world No 2 Alcaraz 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in Doha.
The two have never met, and the slick and low-bouncing conditions in Dubai should prove favourable for both.
Karen Khachanov against Dan Evans
In a rematch of the longest US Open match of all-time, at 5 hours and 35 minutes, Karen Khachanov will face off against Dan Evans in the opening round of Dubai.
The Brit has lost six of his last eight matches, including multiple challenger events which Evans has participated in after a disappointing period of results. Meanwhile, Khachanov has lost his last two matches, but those defeats have been to high-quality opponents – eventual finalist Medjedovic in Marseille, and Medvedev in Doha.
Overall, Evans leads the head-to-head 5-0 with their most recent match being that titanic battle in New York.
Matteo Berrettini against Gael Monfils
Finally, Matteo Berrettini plays Gael Monfils in the first round of the ATP 500 in Dubai.
The Italian got his first victory over Novak Djokovic at the Qatar Open, before eventually losing his next match against Jack Draper. Monfils chose to take an extended break following the Australian Open, where he beat Taylor Fritz and reached the fourth round, with the Frenchman having one of his highest-quality Grand Slam runs in recent years.
Berrettini leads the head-to-head 3-0, with both of their Grand Slam meetings going to a fifth set.
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