Tallon Greek Spoor upsets second seed Alexander Bublik in Dubai | ATP Tour | Tennis

Dubai

Greek track gets its man! Dutchman upsets second seed Bublik in Dubai

Greek track records first victory in five meetings with Kazakhstani, Felix & Medvedev win
February 25, 2026

Tallon Greekpoor had to wait two years for a fifth crack at the victory over Alexander Bublik. On Wednesday during the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, the Dutchman finally broke his losing streak against his rival.

Greek Spoor upset second-seeded Bublik 6-3, 7-6(4) to seal its place in the quarterfinals of the hard-court ATP 500. The number 25 player in the PIF ATP Rankings famously broke the serve of the world number 10 in the second game of the match and rode that success upon returning in the opening set. In the second, groenpoor escaped at 0/40 to hold serve in the second game, before winning four of the last five points in the tie-break to seal his victory.

Big Tallon 😤@Greeks overcomes Bublik 6-3, 7-6(4), snapping a four-match losing streak against him, to advance to the last eight in Dubai!@DDFTennis | #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/VUlR1oVHG6

— ATP tour (@atptour) February 25, 2026

The 82-minute quarter-final encounter came two years after Greek track suffered a heartbreaking fall in two tiebreak sets to Bublik in Dubai, his fourth defeat in as many tour-level encounters with the Kazakhstan. After his revenge success on Wednesday, the Dutchman improved to 1-4 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Greek track awaits Jakub Mensik in the quarter-finals in the UAE. The sixth-seeded Czech eased past Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2 to improve to 13-3 for the season. The 20-year-old Mensik, who upset Jannik Sinner in Doha last week, is now 3-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Popyrin.

Four other seeded players booked their last eight spots on Wednesday: Daniil Medvedev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev and Jiri Lehecka. Medvedev kicked off the day’s action by ending the career of 2016 champion Stan Wawrinka in Dubai with a 6-2, 6-3 win. Third-seeded Medvedev, himself a titlist in Dubai in 2023, will next face Jenson Brooksby after upsetting American seventh seed Karen Khachanov 7-6(6), 6-4.

“I think [I’m moving in the right direction]” said Medvedev after taking his 11th tour-level win of the year. “Two good games [so far in Dubai]. Convincing in the score, that is sometimes more important. I have more time mentally to prepare for the next round and I’m looking forward to it.”

Top seed Auger-Aliassime also enjoyed a second-round win in straight sets. The Canadian defeated big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard for a 6-4, 6-4 win, and the world number 8 will next face Lehecka. The eighth-seeded Czech defeated qualifier Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6(6), 6-4.

2022 Dubai winner Rublev had to dig a little deeper than some of his rivals for a place in the quarter-finals. The fifth seed defeated another former champion Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 and advanced to face fourth seed Jack Draper or Arthur Rinderknech.

“I just tried to do my job,” Rublev said after his two-hour, 23-minute victory. “I tried to play my tennis and keep doing the things I was doing. As soon as I got the chance to play aggressively, I tried to go to the net, focus on my serve, serve hard and put pressure on his return, which wasn’t easy because he served super hard.”