No-pedigree final in Dubai between Karatsev and Harris

In a rare season due to the pandemic, the end of the Dubai ATP 500 it will also be strange. The title will be played this Saturday on South African Lloyd Harris and Aslan Karatsev (16:00, Movistar Deportes 1). A trophy he has won eight times Roger Federer, five Novak Djokovic, one Rafa Nadal, another Andy Murray… The crème de la crème that due to some circumstances or others this year they have turned their backs on the tournament.

South African Harrys (81st ATP, 24 years old) defeated Denis Shapovalov by 6-7 (5), 6-4 and 7-6 (6) to become the first tennis player from the previous one to get into the final. Chain seven victories in seven days. Along the way he was leaving players like Thiem or Nishikori.

In the other semifinal, also a bombshell. Aslan Karatsev (42nd and 27 years old), the surprising semifinalist in Australia, stopped his Russian compatriot Andrey Rublev 6-2, 4-6 and 6-4, a crash that cost him to win due to his difficulty in taking advantage of break balls. Rublev's streak of 23 consecutive ATP 500 victories (titles from Hamburg, St. Petersburg and Vienna in 2020 and Rotterdam in 2021) was broken.