Dubai Tennis Championship - March 17, 2021

Today is another surprising day in tennis, not exactly what I was expecting, honestly, but not as bad as yesterday though. I'm starting to see a pattern here although I don't like to use this technique in real life.

Márton Fucsovics vs Dušan Lajović

The Hungarin Márton Fucsovics met the Serbian Dušan Lajović today. It's not the first time the two meet in a competition. Last time Fucsovics won and today he did it again. He's rising slowly and I'm sure we'll see him again. Today he was superior to his opponent made a lot of smart decisions that led him to victory.

The the Serbian Dušan Lajović tried his best but it looks like he has a lot to learn, especially self control. He got angry several times, he even hit the floor with his tennis racket once, which granted him a warning. This kind of behavior is not tolerated on the court. He's talented and I'm sure he will advance in his career soon.

Taylor Fritz vs Andrey Rublev

In this case I knew both players and was almost 100% about the outcome of the game and was right. Taylor Fritz hasn't had an outstanding performance lately, so it was no surprise Rublev did what he do best, win! Apart from his defeat at the Australian Open, where he had to find out what it means to play against a better player, he had an excellent performance so far. He won the 2021 Rotterdam Open, where he defeated Márton Fucsovics in the final. Poor Taylor Fritz had no chance today even though he tried.

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Looking at today's results, as I said above, I can see a pattern.

Harris defeating 14 seed Krajinovic,
Fuchovics defeating 11 seed Lajovic,
Karatsev defeating 17 seed Sonego,
Sinner defeating 4 seed Bautista,
Chardy defeating 8 seed Khachanov.

Of the winners above, only Sinner has seed, the others don't, which means their ranking is way lower that their opponent. Even though high ranking players are not present here, this result is both surprising and amazing. I like it when a lower ranked player defeats the higher ranked player if the match is fair and none of the players are disadvantaged by an injury for example.

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Tomorrow will be interesting. Taking into consideration what I stated above, I would not be surprised to see the pattern continue.

In normal conditions Shapavalov should win against Chardy as he's 3 seed. The Italian Sinner should beat Karatsev, but who knows? Anything is possible as the last few days proved us. Nothing surprises me anymore.

At this point, if I were to make a prediction about who's going to win the championship, I'd say definitely Andrei Rublev as he has a high chance but I wouldn't mind to be wrong, honestly. It's great to see a low ranking player win a tournament, even if this is not a high ranking tournament.

I'm used to grand slams mostly, where only the best get into semifinals and finals. Here the best are missing, so this is more fun, at least I get to know new players.