Preview Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Final | Daniil Medvedev looks for title number two in Dubai against Tallon Griekspoor

32 players made the trip over to the UAE to compete in the ATP Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, but just two remain to battle it out for the coveted crown. Daniil Medvedev and Tallon Griekspoor have played brilliantly over the last week to reach this stage, but the job is not done yet.

Following two semi-finals packed with drama and excitement along with some thrilling action, the duo will meet in the final of the fifth ATP 500 tournament of the year. The prestigious prizes offered to the winner will be enough motivation along with the trophy and title itself to get over the line. The match will be played on Saturday 28 March at 15:00 GMT.

It has been a differing start to 2026 for Medvedev. He kicked off with a title in the Brisbane International, enjoying the fast conditions. Since then disappointing early exits in the Australian Open, ABN AMRO Open and Qatar Open have followed with his progress stalling as he looks to get back up in the big time of tennis.

Now languishing outside the top 10, a title in Dubai will move him much closer to that goal of climbing back into it but a string of consistent results is needed for this task to happen. If he can play in Dubai every week, then the sky is the limit for the former world number one who has been fantastic all week, warming to the quick conditions very well.

A second title in 2026 is not just on the line, but the first competition he has won twice. The 30-year-old has won 22 ATP titles in 22 different cities. He will be hoping to back up his triumph in 2023 with a similar result, finally breaking this weird record.

Four matches have been played, and he is yet to drop a set. He started with a bang against Juncheng Shang before taking down Stan Wawrinka who delivered the first breaks on the Medvedev serve in the tournament. This would be rare throughout as the Russian stayed firm on his serve. After taking down Jenson Brooksby with minimal fuss, the number one seed and inform Felix Auger-Aliassime was disposed of in fine fashion. An outstanding performance saw him drop just seven points on serve in the whole match and backed up his soaring title credentials.

Griekspoor has caught the eye of many this week, taking down some of the biggest names in tennis while playing some imperious tennis on the courts of Dubai. He is into a second ATP 500 final and is looking for a first title in this category, joining the three ATP 250 triumphs already under his belt.

After a rough start to the year which involved defeats in his opening four matches Down Under, he has responded with back-to-back quarterfinals in the Open Occitanie and ABN AMRO Open on home soil. His performance levels have risen and at the right time with the Sunshine Swing just around the corner, hosting the first two Masters 1000 events of the year.

He is set to defend a last-eight result from Indian Wells last year, making this tournament run the perfect thing to get some points on the board and get him in form to go on a run in the USA. However, a niggling issue may pop up in the final after his most recent display.

He began the competition with a straightforward win over qualifier Otto Virtanen. Following this, for the first time in his career he defeated three top 20 players on the bounce. First up was the dangerous Alexander Bublik who was taken down in a match completely dominated by serving. A much tighter clash against the Qatar Open semi-finalist Jakub Mensik saw the 29-year-old run away in the final set for a very impressive victory before producing the goods against the 2022 champion Andrey Rublev in a high quality match. 39 aces were produced in 25 games played as Griekspoor came back from a medical timeout for a concerning injury to seal the first set in emphatic fashion. He then saved two set points enroute to somehow winning in a marvellous performance.

These two have only faced off once before. That coincidentally came in this tournament last year. Griekspoor produced a gritty and determined performance to send Medvedev out of the competition at the quarterfinal stage after saving four match points in the second set on the way to an impressive comeback.

Medvedev will be hungry for revenge, and goes into the final as the outright favourite. While both players have been serving well this tournament, Medvedev has looked almost impenetrable when starting points.

Similar to the fast courts in Brisbane, he is really coming up with the goods in a favourable setting and will look to take advantage of the possible injury the Dutchman may be carrying with him into the final. While at one stage against Rublev it looked like he may have to retire, Griekspoor dug in and soldiered on to victory. He will need that and a whole heap of quality if he is going to unsettle Medvedev in what is a very intriguing final matchup.