AAP Tennis

Popyrin cruises to Dubai win with De Minaur on horizon

By AAP Newswire

Feb 25, 2025

Alexei Popyrin has completed his half of the deal in the prospective Dubai desert duel with Alex de Minaur.

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The Australian No.2 dismissed Lebanese wildcard Hady Habib 6-2 6-4 in 65 minutes in the Dubai Open first round setting him up to play the national No.1 in the second round, as long as de Minaur sees off Croatian veteran Marin Cilic on Tuesday.

Popyrin raced into a 4-0 lead against Habib on Monday, dropping one point on his serve and showing no signs of the nerves that might have been expected given his last Tour-level win was in October - albeit that was against Dmitri Medvedev in the Paris Masters.

Habib, 141 places below Popyrin at 168 in the world, did manage to get his serve firing to make his mark on the scoresheet, but Popyrin wrapped up the set in 26 minutes.

The Sydneysider was then forced to a deuce point in his opening second set service game, but survived and immediately broke to put a stranglehold on the match. Thereafter he conceded three points in four service games as he eased to victory.

Injury and illness has hampered the 25-year-old's start to 2025 but he'll be hoping to level the ledger against de Minaur at 2-2 having lost their most recent clash on clay in Monte Carlo last year.

First de Minaur needs to beat the 36-year-old former US Open Cilic.

The third Australian in the draw, qualifier Chris O'Connell, faces a tough start against sixth-seed Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday.

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press