It’s in there! Jiri Vesely advances to the final of the tournament in Dubai

Jiri Vesely’s run at the ATP tournament in Dubai is far from over. After knocking Novak Djokovic out of the world number one position, he scored another big scalp. This time it was Canadian Denis Shapovalov.

What happened to Jiri Vesely? In the past weeks he has gradually dropped out of the top 100 of the rankings, lost his position as the Czech number one and has not won a single match at ATP tournaments in 7 months.

But the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai is something else. Not only did he pass the qualification successfully, he managed to knock out 4 top 30 players in his way. Moreover, one of them was also the current world number one Novak Djokovic.

Now, he was facing the ambitious Canadian player Denis Shapovalov and once again, it was a progression.

Vesely started the first set brilliantly as he managed to take the Canadian’s first serve. But the 28-year-old Czech lost the lead in the fifth game. At 4:3, Veselý had two break points, but was unable to convert them. The match went into a shortened game.

The tiebreak brought several twists and turns. When Vesely was not helped by the net, the Canadian made a double fault the very next time. In the end, however, Shapovalov rejoiced after an error by Vesely on the return – 0::1.

In the second set, both players held their serve quite reliably. In the third game there was a small chance for a break for the Czech player, but Shapovalov did not falter. The match went to a shortened game in the second set.

The native of Příbram dominated the match, taking his opponent’s serve four times and winning the tiebreak 7::2 – 1::1.

The decisive third set was also very even. Three unconverted breaks were scored by Vesely in the eighth game and it almost didn’t pay off when Shapovalov finally won the eighth game, broke the Czech’s next serve and served for the win in game 10.

Veselý didn’t give up, he fought back and managed to break the Canadian with a tenacious and technically brilliant performance. The game reached the tiebreak again. Shapovalov was getting upset with every failed ball, but Vesely proved once again in this tournament how strong his nerves are in a shortened game. He won it 7::3 and advanced to the final of the ATP 500 in Dubai – 2::1.

In the final, Russia’s Andrey Rublev will be waiting for him. In the second semi-final, the tournament’s number two seed defeated Poland’s Hurkacz in three sets – 6::3, 5::7, 7::6(5).

Vesely is one step away from a huge success. His return to the Top 100 is already assured, now he would like to finish it off and complete probably the best tournament of his career.

Source: ATP, Twitter