Humbert stuns defending champion Tsitsipas, Medvedev and Bublik move ahead at Dubai Open

Ugo Humbert stunned defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a 6-4, 7-5 win in the first round on Wednesday.

Humbert, the 2024 champion, took advantage of the only breaks in each set to secure the victory in 86 minutes.

Despite Tsitsipas losing just five points on his first serve, Humbert’s timely breaks were the difference in the match.

Earlier, Daniil Medvedev dispatched Juncheng Shang 6-1, 6-3, completing the match in just over an hour.

The third-seeded Russian, who won the title here in 2023, will face Stan Wawrinka in the next round.

Shang, the 21-year-old ranked World No262, has offered flashes of promise in recent months despite the inevitable growing pains of a young professional. In early January, he reached the quarter-finals in Hong Kong, a result that hinted at an upward trajectory, but consistency has since proved elusive and he had lost three of his previous four matches, including a 4-6, 2-6 defeat to Medvedev last week in Doha.

The rematch provided little reversal of fortune as Medvedev struck 20 winners and 10 aces, dictating play from the baseline and rarely allowing rallies to drift beyond his control. On serve, the World No11 was especially untouchable, capturing 81 per cent of his first-serve points over the course of the contest to condemn Shang to consecutive defeats in subsequent weeks.

“Of course, I tried to play the same tactic [as last week] because if it works, you need to stick to it,” Medvedev said.

“I knew he would of course try to adapt some things, so I tried to adapt to his adaptations and did that quite well. I saw he was struggling a bit at the end, but until then, I thought it was a fair match, and we were playing some pretty good points.”

For all the scoreboard’s lopsided tilt, there were moments of resistance. Early in the first set, the pair engaged in a bruising 34-shot rally – one of the longest exchanges of the tournament to date – that drew murmurs from the appreciative crowd. It was Medvedev, the former World No. 1, who ultimately claimed the point.

Asked where he feels the level of his game is coming into a tournament that features four other former Dubai champions as well as eight of the world’s top 20, Medvedev suggested he is more content than confident.

“Actually, I shouldn’t judge myself too much just now,” he said. “I lost a couple of matches lately and whenever you do it, you always feel like you are playing worse. I should try to pump myself up instead. I won 6-1, 6-3, so if we don’t put every point under the microscope, it was a good level in general, I look forward to the next match and raising my level even more.”

Medvedev had barely finished his post-match media duties when Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, the World No. 10 and this week’s No. 2 seed, strolled onto the 5,000-capacity Centre Court to open his own campaign.

Facing a Lucky Loser in Jan-Lennard Struff, Bublik was a picture of composure despite entering the tie on the wrong side of a 3-2 head-to-head record and having required three sets to get past the same opponent only a couple of weeks ago in Rotterdam.

Bublik, breaking his German opponent’s serve at the first opportunity, took an early 3-1 lead and refused to relinquish it, hitting six aces as well as saving three breakpoints. Battling throughout, Struff — ranked 70 places below his opponent in the world rankings — showed fight but could not level the tie. When his own service game was broken again in the ninth game, the first set went to Bublik 6-3.

Struff found his serve in the second set, hitting six aces of his own, but Bublik was not for budging and took his tally to 12 overall. With the set going with serve, the Kazakh eventually got the all-important break in the 10th to take the set 6-4 and seal comfortable passage to the second round.

Seventh seed Karen Khachanov rallied past Alexander Shevchenko 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3 and will face Jenson Brooksby, who defeated Zizou Bergs 6-3, 6-4.

Arthur Rinderknech came from behind to beat Fabian Marozsan 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and will meet fourth seed Jack Draper next.

Pablo Carreno Busta, who came through qualifying, triumphed 6-2, 6-4 over Denis Shapovalov to extend his strong record, setting up a clash with Jiri Lehecka, who defeated Luca Nardi 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.