Andrey Rublev, the No.5 seed at this week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, progressed to his fifth semi-final in the city on Thursday night — a benchmark reached by only two other men in the ATP 500 tournament’s 34-year history: Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Not bad company to keep.

The 28-year-old secured the milestone with a 6-2, 6-4 dismissal of Arthur Rinderknech at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, blending his trademark ferocious, front-foot groundstrokes with sharp instincts all over the fast-playing Centre Court. Though known for detonating forehands from the baseline, the World No.18 demonstrated versatility, finishing points with a mixture of precision and power. At times, Rublev appears like a robot programmed to return, never quite knowing when to surrender a point and retain his energy.

Yet the pay-off of such persistence was demonstrated perfectly when he broke Rinderknech in the fifth game to go 3-2 up. Chasing down a return on his backhand, he looped the ball high only for the Frenchman to volley in the opposite direction. Rather than letting it go, Rublev hurriedly shuttled across to the opposite tramline, stretching and contorting to ping an inch-perfect forehand back across court that kissed the baseline and left his opponent staring on in disbelief.

“It's tough to say something about my level because Arthur is the kind of player who breaks the rhythm,” said Rublev, who won the title here in 2022 and reached the final again a year later. “He doesn't play rallies. He hits two or three shots, serves super hard, returns super hard, so there is no rhythm. That’s why it is important to have all the focus on the first two, three shots. All my game was based on those first two or three shots; to not let him get a good position to attack and instead force him to hit from tough positions. The opportunities he gave me, I was able to return well and aggressively to put pressure on him.”

The victory, achieved inside just 75 minutes, was among Rublev’s most polished efforts of the season as he stormed through 11 of the opening 14 games, striking 19 winners while keeping his unforced errors to 11. When the contest was over and he had successfully taken his perfect head-to-head record against Rinderknech to 4-0, he spent a further 40 minutes signing autographs, taking photos, and chatting with his hordes of fans.

On court at least, Thursday’s exchange was in stark contrast to Wednesday’s last-16 tie with 2024 winner Ugo Humbert, which went three sets, featured a second-set tiebreak, and lasted two hours, 23 minutes.

“I’m happy to be back in the semi-final,” said Rublev, who is contesting his third semi-final of the season after reaching the final-four in Hong Kong and last week in Doha. “Arthur is a tough player. We have had great battles in the past, so I’m really happy that I was able to win in straight sets, especially after a long and tough [quarter-final] match, to be able to win in straight sets helps a lot as I’ll have more time to recover.”

Rublev’s next challenge is Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, who himself reached the semi-final here last year before falling to eventual winner Stefanos Tsitsipas. The 29-year-old overpowered the in-form Jakub Mensik 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in an intense match under the lights to secure an 11th career semi-final appearance.

With 13 wins in 2026, Mensik had arrived in the last-eight leading the Tour in wins this season and seeking a third semi-final of 2026 after Auckland and last week’s Qatar Open. Yet despite hitting 16 aces across the three sets, the 20-year-old could do little with Griekspoor’s game in the first and final sets. In the decisive third, serving for 3-3, Mensik ended the game on his back as his opponent’s angled return proved tantalisingly out of reach.

Griekspoor, who had eliminated No2 seed Alexander Bublik on Wednesday, said: “I thought I started off really, really well. I broke him with a good game from my side. I didn’t really have any problems. It shifted a little bit in the second set, I didn't make as many first serves and he started to serve better. At the beginning of the third, I had to up my game, serve better, which I really did. In the end, I started to return really well too, so I am very pleased with the win.”

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