Top seeds blossom under afternoon sun as Bublik and Medvedev progress to Round 2 in Dubai

• Medvedev, the No3 seed this week, enjoyed a straight-sets victory over Shang Juncheng at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships to set up last-16 tie with Swiss star Stan Wawrinka

• No2 seed Alexander Bublik needed only 66 minutes to see off lucky loser Jan-Lennard Struff on Centre Court, but he refuses to focus on career-high ranking

Dubai, UAE – 24 February 2026: Under the afternoon sun, the seeds blossomed. Day Two of ATP 500 week at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships started with Daniil Medvedev showing clinical efficiency to dispatch China’s Juncheng Shang in little more than an hour. The Russian, seeded third this week and champion here in 2023, moved through the match with confidence to seal a 6-1, 6-3 win and set-up a last-16 tie with Stan Wawrinka.

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 quarterfinals 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% 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 No1, 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 No10 and this week’s No2 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.

“I think I played a solid match,” said Bublik, who lost in the Dubai final two years ago. “I mean, it’s never easy to face Jan. I’m trailing a bit in the head-to-head, but I knew what I had to do. I knew what shots I have to execute to get more chances to win easily, and I think I did well in more important moments.”

Bublik is enjoying a career-high ranking of No10, but insisted he prefers to focus on his game, knowing the two factors are not mutually exclusive. “It’s just a number and if you play well, you’re going to have a better ranking,” he said. “If you start losing matches, the ranking is going to go down very quickly if everyone else plays well. So, for me, it’s more about keeping my game and enjoying the moment.”

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is owned and organised by Dubai Duty Free and held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Running until Saturday, a variety of tickets remain available with prices starting from Dh65.

For full details, visit dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com or ticketmaster.ae