Once again at the top of the world rankings, Novak Djokovic takes the racket in hand. The tennis player is back this week at the Dubai tournament, a month after his triumph in Australia. The Serb trained at home in Belgrade before moving to the Middle East. On Wednesday, he assured that the thigh injury that bothered him in Melbourne, without preventing him from winning hands down his 22nd Grand Slam tournament, was "healed".

At the age of 35, he has regained the first place in the world and will begin his 378th week in Dubai at this rank, a record now absolute, men and women combined, since he surpasses by one unit the German Steffi Graf. Djokovic will be on favorable ground on the hard courts of Dubai where he has already won five times, but he remains on a mixed memory in this ATP 500. It was there that he started his season in 2022 after being deprived of the Australian Open due to lack of vaccination against covid and he was beaten in the quarterfinals by Czech Jiri Vesely.

Still undefeated in the Gulf

This refusal of the vaccine against Covid-19, always reaffirmed, could this year prevent him from playing the Masters 1,000 of Indian Wells and Miami, which take place in the wake of Dubai, because the US authorities have extended until April the vaccination obligation for foreign visitors.



Djokovic arrives unbeaten in the Gulf after winning his comeback tournament in Adelaide and then the Australian Open by being more dominant than ever. He is twelve wins in a row. The No. 2 seed in Dubai is Andrei Rublev (5th in the world) but Djokovic's first rival may be the other Russian Andrei Medvedev, back-to-back winner of the Rotterdam and Doha tournaments and in full renewal. The two men could face each other in the semifinals.

There will also be among the outsiders the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime and the German Alexander Zverev, still looking for his best level eight months after his serious injury at Roland-Garros. Djokovic will meet a player from qualifying in the first round and then in the second the winner of the match between Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor and Frenchman Constant Lestienne.

  • Tennis
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  • Novak Djokovic
  • Dubai