See below for our daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Wednesday February 26 at the ATP Dubai, including the top tips and players to back in our tennis betting markets!
After pulling off a stunning upset in the first round in Dubai, veteran Marin Cilic is eyeing off another Aussie scalp in the form of Alexei Popyrin.
Cilic, 36, returned from more than three months on the sidelines with a 6-4 6-4 loss to Carlos Alcaraz in Doha last week. But the 2014 US Open champ and 2018 Australian Open runner-up’s 6-2 3-6 6-3 victory over world No.8 Alex de Minaur was widely unexpected.
World No.27 Popyrin had gone winless in 2025, until the first round here on Monday when he saw off Hady Habib 6-2 6-4 with a consummate serving performance (including winning 93 percent of his first-serve points).
The head-to-head is one-all, with Popyrin winning in the 2021 Singapore Open semis and Cilic prevailing at the 2022 Miami Masters.
Popyrin still has a long way to go to prove he is back to the form that powered him to the Canadian Masters title last year. The wily Cilic has been outstanding since returning and is a compelling underdog here.
Spanish stalwart Roberto Bautista Agut lines up against Frenchman Quentin Halys in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The pair have split their two clashes to date, which were both on clay in 2023. Halys won at the Estoril Open before Bautsita Agut turned the tables at the Madrid Masters.
The 36-year-old Bautista Agut, a former top-10 player currently ranked 53rd, outlasted Fabian Marozsan 3-6 6-3 7-6 in the first round on Monday – his first win since upsetting Casper Ruud at the Swiss Indoors in October.
World No.77 Halys battled through tight qualifiers against Yasutaka Uchiyama and Pavel Kotov just to make the main draw in Dubai, before shocking third seed Andrey Rublev 3-6 6-4 7-6 in the first round.
It was only Halys’ second main draw win of 2025.
Bautista Agut, the $2.15 outsider, won this event in 2018 and Halys will take a stack of confidence from rolling Rublev, but this should be an extremely close affair.
French tyro Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard lines up against big gun Daniil Medvedev for the first time at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The 21-year-old eliminated Zhizhen Zhang 6-3 7-6 in the first round in his first outing since a five-set loss to Gael Monfils in the Australian Open’s opening round.
World No.29 Mpetshi Perricard projected a big 2025 by winning the Swiss Indoors in October and reaching the Brisbane International semis.
Top seed Medvedev is a modest 6-4 so far this season, crashing out of the AO to Learner Tien and suffering upsets to Mattia Bellucci and Hamad Medjedovic at subsequent events.
Last week in Doha he was regaining some momentum before retiring at a set down to Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarters, but he regrouped with a win over Jan-Lennard Struff (6-4 7-6) yesterday.
The brilliant Russian’s form is hard to trust at present, but his trademark counterattack should be able to subdue Mpetshi Perricard’s exciting but raw offensive style this time around.
Looking to put a rocky start to 2025 behind them, top-25 rivals Stefanos Tsitsipas and Karen Khachanov square off in the Dubai Tennis Championships’ Round of 16.
Tsitsipas has dominated this rivalry, beating Khachanov eight times in nine meetings. Khachanov’s sole win was at the 2023 Miami Masters, with Tsitsipas getting up at the Paris Masters later that year and the Monte-Carlo Masters in 2024 since.
A two-time runner-up here (2019-20), world No.11 Tsistipas accounted for Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 6-3 in the first round. Earlier this season, he went down to Alex Michelsen first up at the Australian Open, and suffered disappointing losses to Mattia Bellucci and Hamad Medjedovic.
Khachanov’s only wins in 2025 prior to this week were against modest opposition at the Australian Open, before he, too, fell to Michelsen in the third round. He went down to Medjedovic at the Open 13 and Daniil Medvedev in a tough three-setter at the Qatar Open.
The Russian got back on track with a dominant 6-1 6-3 win over Dan Evans yesterday.
But multi-skilled Tsitsipas’ imposing record against the more limited Khachanov is too decisive a factor to overlook in this one with little separating them in the head-to-head market.