Three years earlier, Stefanos Tsitsipas visited Abu Dhabi for the first time and finished in the final, starting with a victory over Andrei Rublev. The two men have faced each other more than once since that head-to-head encounter and now this head-to-head encounter has gone through thirteen games with the Greek leading by a narrow margin. The Russian will surely want to reach parity in the scoreline, but will he succeed? The match will start on December 18 at 14:00.
Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #1 – Handicap (+1) for Rublev – 2.108.
Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #2 – Total Games Over 22 – 1.48
Rublev and Tsitsipas recently met at the ATP Finals. That match ended in a win for Andrey. We reckon Andrey has a better chance of success in this match. Especially now that he is in great shape as evidenced by his recent convincing victory over Alcaraz Garfia.
The tennis players have met three times this season and all three matches ended in three sets. We expect the upcoming match to be a tightly contested three-set match as well.
Tsitsipas will play in the Abu Dhabi final for the second time. In 2020, he lost in the decider to Novak Djokovic.
On Saturday, Stef scored a confident victory over Casper Ruud (6-2, 6-2).
Tsitsipas calmly defeated his opponent, for whom it was the first match after the break. A little over a fortnight ago, the Norwegian played twice against Rafa Nadal in Latin America, but there was a completely different level of resistance.
Tsitsipas was clearly playing for results. Stef did not let Ruud have anything at all on reception, but he converted four break points himself.
There is a suspicion that Stef will approach the start of the new season in very good form.
Tsitsipas has three wins in his last five matches against lower-ranked opponents.
Rublev, meanwhile, reached the final in Abu Dhabi for the second year in a row. At the end of 2021, he won the exhibition tournament in the UAE capital.
If last week Andrey had a frankly weak match against Stan Wawrinka, this week he is playing much better.
Andrey defeated Borna Coric on Friday. As expected, it was a difficult match, but Rublev took two sets and never relinquished a serve.
On Saturday, Rublev defeated Carlos Alcaraz. It was a smash in 59 minutes (6-2, 6-1). The game showed that the Spaniard, who recently recovered from an abdominal muscle injury, is still far from his optimum form.
Rublev had lost three of his previous five top-10 clashes.
Type of Court – Indoor Hard
Speed of Court – 8/10
Stefanos Tsitsipas’s Rating – 4
Stefanos Tsitsipas Wins/Losses in 2022 – 63/25
Andrey Rublev’s Rating – 8
Andrey Rublev Wins/Losses in 2022 – 53/21
Stefanos Tsitsipas leads with a score of 7-6 in the head-to-head encounters. The last time they met was at the ATP World Tour Finals in November. In that match, Rublev defeated Tsitispas (3-6, 6-3, 6-2) in three sets.
The match will be played in Center Court, Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
We recommend checking out the odds for the 2022 ATP Mudabala World Tennis Championship: Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Andrey Rublev at 1xBet.