BROOKSBY OUT: AMERICAN STAR'S DREAM RUN ENDS AS DANIIL MEDVEDEV CLINCHES CLINICAL DUBAI VICTORY
Medvedev through. Get the report on his 6-2, 6-1 win and his thoughts on Brooksby’s suspected shoulder injury.
Daniil Medvedev is through to the semi-finals at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships after beating Jenson Brooksby.
Medvedev has looked sharp in Dubai. He started by beating Juncheng Shang in straight sets, then cruised past Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3 in the Round of 16. That win over Wawrinka, who was playing his last match in Dubai, set up this quarter-final against Brooksby.
Honestly, Brooksby never really got going. Medvedev broke him right away in the first game and kept the pressure on for the whole 57 minutes. He didn’t face a single break point and never let Brooksby settle into the match.
Medvedev’s serve looked rock solid, and he was all over Brooksby’s second serve. He won a big chunk of his first-serve points and made the most of his break chances. Brooksby, on the other hand, barely managed a couple of winners the entire match.
The score pretty much tells the story. Medvedev snatched the first set with no trouble, then broke serve three more times in the second to wrap things up without much fuss.
Brooksby, who isn’t even in the top 40, just couldn’t find a way past Medvedev’s depth and clever shot-making on these quick Dubai courts. He barely had any chances to break back.
Now Medvedev gets ready for the semi-finals, where he’ll take on either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Jiri Lehecka. He’s looking to keep up his run and go for the title.
After the match, Medvedev said he was happy with how he played and is looking forward to the next round.
“I’m really happy with my level. I think I’m playing better and better with every match,” he said. “A lot of my shots were landing in, and I think maybe he had a shoulder issue, but he’s a tough competitor, so I knew it wouldn’t be easy.
“I put in the work during the off-season and came into this year feeling good. I think you can see that paying off now.”
EMMA RADUCANU DROPS TO NO. 29 AS VIRAL ILLNESS DELAYS COMPETITIVE TENNIS RETURN
Emma Raducanu falls to World No. 29. Discover her Madrid Open comeback plans and the viral illness that halted her WTA season.
Emma Raducanu has slipped further down the WTA rankings as she focuses on regaining her full fitness. At 23, she has faced several interruptions since her breakthrough win at the US Open in 2021.
While Raducanu stands out as a major title winner, having claimed her US Open victory after navigating the qualifiers, she reached her highest ranking at No. 10 less than a year later. Since then, she hasn’t added another singles title to her name, working instead on finding steadiness in her game. She’s aiming to kick off her clay-court season at the Madrid Open later this month. Yet, her ranking has dipped ahead of that event, partly because she withdrew from both the Miami Open and the Linz Open.
Currently listed at No. 29, down one spot from 28, Raducanu hasn’t gained ranking points recently due to recovering from a viral illness. Her last appearance was at Indian Wells in March, where she exited in the third round against Amanda Anisimova.
Her decision to miss Miami and Linz came after falling ill. Reports from BBC Sport noted that she started feeling unwell in February but kept competing until she pulled out of the Austrian tournament.
As Raducanu prepares for a potential comeback at Madrid, which kicks off on April 21, Romania’s Sorana Cirstea has moved ahead in the rankings. At 36, Cirstea climbed three places to 26th after reaching the quarter-finals in Linz.
Interestingly, Raducanu and Cirstea met earlier this year at the Transylvania Open final in Cirstea’s home country. Cirstea won decisively, 6-0, 6-2, though Raducanu admitted she wasn’t at her best even before the match started.
“In Cluj, I picked up a virus at the start of the tournament,” Raducanu shared with the Guardian in February. “I was dealing with that and its after-effects... which lasted for three weeks. I’ve been trying to shake it off. The Middle East trip was really tough for me.”
It seems Raducanu is keen to recover fully before stepping back onto the court. Looking back, Aryna Sabalenka took the 2023 Madrid Open title with a 6-3, 7-6 win over Coco Gauff in the final.
JANNIK SINNER TAKES WORLD NO. 1; ALCARAZ CAN RECLAIM LEAD IN BARCELONA
Jannik Sinner is World No. 1! Discover how Carlos Alcaraz can reclaim the top spot at the Barcelona Open this week.
Jannik Sinner’s win over Carlos Alcaraz at the Monte-Carlo Masters wasn't just a big match; it sent Sinner straight back to the world number one ranking. Now, the Italian leads Alcaraz by 440 points after his Monte-Carlo victory.
But the clay season is packed, and with so many tournaments coming up, there’s still plenty of room for the rankings to shift before Roland Garros rolls around.
Alcaraz doesn’t have to wait long for his shot to reclaim the top spot. His next chance comes right away at the Barcelona Open, his home tournament. Last year, Alcaraz made the final in Barcelona, and now he’s set to chase down Sinner again.
Honestly, their Monte-Carlo match didn’t quite live up to the hype. Blame the wind. It was a pretty scrappy three out of ten match, if we’re being honest. Not exactly the fireworks everyone expected.
Still, Sinner and Alcaraz will be only 160 points apart at the start of the Barcelona Open, really close. If Alcaraz wins in Barcelona, he actually jumps above Sinner in the rankings, but just barely. He’d have 13,410 points, Sinner would have 13,400. It’s that tight.
Plus, if the rumours are true and Sinner skips the Madrid Open, Alcaraz could hang onto the top spot pretty easily.
Even with the recent slip in the rankings, Alcaraz shouldn’t be discouraged. He knew Sinner had been playing out of his mind lately and probably expected the rankings to flip. Sinner outplayed him in Monte-Carlo and fully deserved that win.
But there’s a lot of tennis left this spring. Alcaraz is strong on clay and has more chances, especially in Madrid, to rack up points. Neither player competed in Madrid last year, so both have a great shot to stretch their leads.
With Alcaraz picking up extra points in Barcelona, Sinner might not stay number one for long. Expect this battle at the top to keep flipping back and forth; it’s far from over.
