It’s the penultimate day of the World Tennis League in Dubai, with Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic on the match card. Here is your look at the day’s scheduled play in this exhibition.
Nick Kyrgios vs Alexander Zverev
Nick Kyrgios has been in miserable form this month, he has yet to take a set in exhibition matches against Cameron Norrie, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Grigor Dimitrov, while Alexander Zverev has wins over Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic on that same exhibition circuit. Returning from a broken ankle suffered at the French Open, Zverev has demonstrated the range of his talent and will be looking to continue to build his game ahead of the official start of the ATP Tour season. The direct h2h favors Kyrgios 5-3, the pair haven’t met since 2019 and all meetings came on hard courts. With how poor Kyrgios has been playing, a motivated Zverev should close that h2h margin though. Zverev in 2 sets
Novak Djokovic vs Felix Auger-Aliassime
This pair met twice this year with the h2h splitting evently, Auger-Aliassime won their indoor hard court meeting at the Laver Cup. The Canadian is undefeated in the World Tennis League thus far, scoring wins over Dominic Thiem and the aforementioned Nick Kyrgios in straight sets, and he’s on a five match winning streak in singles if you count his three Davis Cup playoff wins, all without dropping a set. Djokovic saw a five match losing streak get snapped when he lost to Zverev in the World Tennis League, and pulled out of his last scheduled match due to illness. With Auger-Aliassime playing this well, there’s no reason to believe he’s not good enough to win this matchup. Auger-Aliassime in 3
Caroline Garcia vs Elena Rybakina
The lower ranked Rybakina has two h2h wins against Garcia in their careers, Garcia sports a 1-1 record in singles thus far at the World Tennis League, defeating Paula Badosa after losing to Iga Swiatek. Rybakina defeated Aryna Sabalenka in three sets in her only World Tennis League match so far. This should be a nip and tuck match, given the h2h Rybakina looks to be a credible choice to pull off an upset. Rybakina in 2
Iga Swiatek vs Aryna Sabalenka
The h2h favors Swiatek 4-2, and all but one of the meetings took place this year, although Sabalenka did win their most recent match at the WTA Finals just a few weeks ago. Swiatek has had a succesful World Tennis League thus far with two singles wins without dropping a set against Anatasia Pavlyuchenkova and Caroline Garcia. I expect this match will be close but Swiatek’s form looks slightly better and the h2h favors her overall. Swiatek in 3
Main Photo from Getty Images
