Popular darling Malek Jaziri missed the jump into the final of the ATP tournament in Dubai. The Tunisian underdog lost 3-6,4-6 to third seed Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard will face Lucas Pouille from France (No. 2) in Saturday’s final, who eliminated Filip Krajinovic (Serbia/No. 7)6-3,6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5) in the final round.
The spectators celebrated Malek Jaziri, but in the end it was not enough for the Tunisian veteran at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The 34-year-old could nevertheless be satisfied with his fairytale “run”. After all, he was the first Arab since Younes El Aynaoui (Morocco) in 2002 to reach the semi-finals of the Glitter Tournament in the Gulf.
After the defeat against Bautista Agut was the world rankings-117. Jaziri, who only slipped into the main field of the event, which was endowed with more than three million dollars, thanks to a wildcard, was far from depressed:”I am proud to have won a few matches here. I made many Tunisians happy, I felt that. I’m going to take a lot of self-confidence out of this week – mentally, but also from a tennis-specific point of view,”said “Jazz” Jaziri, who had to fear for the continuation of his career last season because of an injury-related misery.
On his way to the final round, the Tunisian had eliminated top seed Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) and the Dutchman Robin Haase and Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece. In the duel with the Spaniard, Jaziri was also plagued by back problems.
In the other semi-final, Pouille needed more than 2:19 hours on a rainy Friday, before he had defeated Krajinovic. The Frenchman scored 16 aces – since his first round out at the Australian Open in Melbourne in mid-January, the 24-year-old, who lives in Dubai, has won 11 of his 13 matches. Among other things, Pouille had won the title in Montpellier and only failed last week in Marseille in the final against Russian Karen Khachanov.
With a Saturday’s victory over Bautista Agut, 2018 Auckland champion, Pouille would make it into the top ten for the first time,”That’s something great, of course! But if I play the whole year as I am at the moment, and if I’m focused, it will happen at some point anyway,”said the 2017 Stuttgart and Vienna winner, commenting on his chances of making it to the top ten pros.