Dubai Championships: Djokovic vs Griekspoor Tennis Prediction

TennisSection previews the 2023 Dubai Championships as Novak Djokovic takes on Tallon Griekspoor in the second round on Wednesday, March 1, 2023.

Novak Djokovic survived an almighty scare in his opening match against Tomas Machac. The Serbian World No. 1 will now square off against the ATP’s breakout star of 2023 Tallon Griekspoor. Who will prevail and advance into the quarterfinal of the Dubai Championships?

Novak Djokovic did not play his best tennis, but his first-round opponent Tomas Machac did. And it was almost enough to knock off the World No. 1 on a court he can very much call his backyard. Djokovic has won the Dubai Championships five times, along with multiple runner-up finishes. But that did not guarantee he would have it easy against the spirited qualifier from the Czech Republic who certainly took a leaf out of the Jiri Vesely playbook to push the top seed to three sets. Djokovic in the end only needed to raise his level intermittently between sets and clinched the match by dominating the final set tiebreak.

Tallon Griekspoor, meanwhile, was a victor on day one beating France’s Constant Lestienne 6-4 3-6 6-2 to reach the second round of the Dubai Championships. It was a match that was dominated by serve, with both players compiling 11 aces apiece, but it was the Dutchman who the key points in the contest including the most break points converted in the match with three.

Novak Djokovic leads Tallon Griekspoor 1-0 in their head-to-head. The top seed defeated Griekspoor at the 2021 US Open in straight sets. While the Dutchman has improved by leaps and bounds since that match, it is tough to imagine him causing Djokovic a lot of problems. Not only will he need to serve impeccably throughout the afternoon, but he will need to produce some world-class shotmaking and hope Djokovic has another off-color display. It’s asking a lot of the Dutchman to knit all this together. Expect the World No. 1 to reach another quarterfinal at the Dubai Championships.