Dubai
Grixpool got his man! Dutch beats second seed Bublik in Dubai
Grikspur defeated Kazakhstan for the first time in five meetings, Felix and Medvedev won
February 25, 2026
Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship 2026
Talon Grikspur beat Alexander Bublik on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals in Dubai.
Andy West
Talon Grikspoor was forced to wait two years before defeating Alexander Bublik for the fifth time. The Dutchman finally ended his rival’s losing streak at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
Grikspur defeated second seed Bublik 6-3, 7-6(4) to seal a spot in the ATP 500 hard court quarterfinals. The PIF ATP Ranking No. 25 famously broke the World No. 10’s serve in the second game of the match and was successful on his way back to the first set. In the second game, Grixpo held his serve with a score of 0/40 and won 4 of the last 5 points in the tie-break to seal the victory.
Great era of Talon 😤@Griekii Defeated Bublik 6-3, 7-6(4), ending his four-game losing streak and advancing to the quarterfinals in Dubai!@DDFTennis | #DDFTtennis pic.twitter.com/VUlR1oVHG6
— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 25, 2026
The 82-minute quarter-final clash took place two years ago when Grikspur suffered a heartbreaking two-set tiebreak loss to Bublik in Dubai, his fourth defeat in a tour-level match against the Kazakhstani. The Dutchman improves to 1-4 in the Lexus ATP Head2Head Series after a successful revenge on Wednesday.
Awaiting Grikspur in the quarter-finals of the UAE is Jakub Mencik. The sixth-seeded Czech defeated Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2 to improve his season record to 13-3. Mencic, 20, defeated Jannik Sinner in Doha last week and now has a 3-0 record in the Lexus ATP Showdown series with Popyrin.
Four other seeded players booked their spots in the last eight on Wednesday: Daniil Medvedev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Andrei Rublev and Jiri Lehka. Medvedev opened the day’s proceedings by ending 2016 champion Stan Wawrinka’s Dubai career with a 6-2, 6-3 victory. Third-seeded Medvedev, himself a 2023 Dubai Open champion, will next face Jenson Brooksby, who beat seventh-seeded Karen Khachanov 7-6(6), 6-4.
“I think [I’m moving in the right direction],” Medvedev said after his 11th tour-level victory of the year. “Two wonderful games [so far in Dubai]. The scores are compelling and sometimes more important. I’ve had more time to mentally prepare for the next round, which I’m looking forward to. ”
Top seed Auger-Aliassime also won in straight sets in the second round. The Canadian defeated the excellent serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4, 6-4. The world No. 8 player will next face Lehecka. The eighth-seeded Czech defeated qualifier Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6(6), 6-4.
Rublev, the 2022 Dubai champion, has been forced to fight deeper than some rivals for a quarter-final spot. The fifth seed defeated another former champion Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 and advanced to face fourth seed Jack Draper or Arthur Lindeknech.
“I just wanted to do my job,” Rublev said after his two-hour, 23-minute victory. “Trying to play my tennis and keep doing what I’m doing. Once I get a chance to be aggressive, I try to go to the net, focus on my serve, serve hard and put pressure on his return, which is not easy because he serves so hard.”
