Cover Photo – Ranjith Kumar

Yuki Bhambri and his Dutch partner Robin Haase displayed grit and determination to defeat the formidable pairing of Alexander Bublik and Adrian Mannarino in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The final score of 6-7(6), 6-3, 10-8 tells a story of a closely contested match that went down to the wire.

Bhambri/Haase had earlier won two matches in qualifying, including one against Mies/Smith, having lost to the same pairing in Doha just a week prior. They will now set their sights on their next challenge in the quarterfinals, where they will face the team of Jamie Murray and Michael Venus.

Q) Thoughts about the match today. They are primarily singles players. How different is it playing against doubles specialists vs active singles players?

YB – Usually the singles guys are just better baseline players, and not so good at the net. And doubles guys are usually better at the net, but not as good from the baseline. So fundamentally, nothing really changes. You still have to play well, hold serve, and volley good. You’re probably more aware of what their strengths and weaknesses are. And that’s how you go about it in the match.

Q) Mies/Smith – the team you beat in final round qualies – you lost to them last week in Doha. How did you change your approach to the match? What changed?

YB – Ya, we lost to them in Doha. But we’ve won one now. The one here was also very close. Most matches in doubles go very close. And it usually comes down to just a few points here and there. We didn’t play well in Doha but managed to raise our level in Dubai. So we’re happy we could get the win.

Q) Thoughts on the next match

YB – We don’t know our quarter-final opponents yet. But hoping that we can keep our good run here, win as many matches as possible and get our rankings up. It’s always fun playing here in Dubai, so we’ll look to keep this going.