DUBAI, February 28. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev has won the 2026 Dubai Tennis Championships after his final match’s opponent Tallon Griekspoor from the Netherlands opted to withdraw.

In the tournament’s closing match on Saturday the 3rd-seeded Medvedev, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, was set to clash against the unseeded Dutch Griekspoor, who eventually opted to withdraw due to an injury sustained in a semifinals match of the tournament.

The 29-year-old Greek player was earlier reported to sustain an injury during his semifinals match against another Russian player, 5th-seeded Andrey Rublev, that saw him to the finals with 7-5; 7-6 win.

"I have been better, that's for sure," the official ATP website quoted Griekspoor as saying during the trophy ceremony. "Unfortunately, I hurt myself during the semifinals. I went to the hospital this morning and had a couple of scans, which showed something serious. It kept me from coming on court tonight and will keep me from the court in the coming weeks."

The Russian tennis player, who won his 23rd ATP tour-level crown and the second one at the level of ATP series this year, said: "That's what is crazy about it."

"I never did it in any city in the world, and the first time I do it, it's [via] a walkover... We knew before the start of the week, the way I was practicing, I couldn't miss a ball. We knew it was going to be a great week. It was a great week and I'm looking forward to the next tournaments to come," he added.

Medvedev, 30, spent sixteen weeks as the world’s number one player in 2022. Currently, he’s the 11th-ranked player in the world. He previously won the 2021 US Open and is now a 23-time ATP champion. He won five of those 22 titles in 2023. Also, in 2021, he won the Davis Cup as well as the ATP Cup playing for the Russian national team.

The 2026 Dubai Tennis Championships is the ATP-500 event. It was played between February 23 and 28 on outdoor hard courts at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and offers $3.3 million in prize money. Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece was the tournament’s champion in 2025.

Russian and Belarusian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC's recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations moved to exclude athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ruled on March 1, 2022, to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations while also canceling all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in the two countries.

On March 14, 2022, the ITF also confirmed its prohibition on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from participating in the 2022 Davis Cup and the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.