Tennis
2026-02-24 - Daniil Medvedev vs Juncheng Shang
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis : ATP 500 Dubai First Round
Tuesday 24th February 2026 - Scheduled 2pm
10am (British Time)
Preview
This is the second time during the Middle East swing that these two players are facing off and Daniil Medvedev is expected to frank his win over Juncheng Shang.
The Australian Open run ended very disappointingly and Medvedev has struggled for some consistency since then.
He has now lost three of the last four matches played, but the exception is the win over Juncheng Shang in Doha and Daniil Medvedev is still playing at a level that should be too good for the World Number 262.
Injuries have contributed to that World Ranking mark for a 21 year old who was as high as World Number 47 less than eighteen months ago. Juncheng Shang has a 3-3 record on the hard courts at the start of the 2026 season, but the losses have all been pretty comfortable and that means the numbers being produced are not very impressive.
Juncheng Shang does have a serve that can cause problems, but he has only been breaking in 14% of return games played, which has put pressure to serve well. He was not able to impose that shot on Daniil Medvedev in Doha with the second serve in particular being a shot that was attacked by the higher Ranked player and that saw Shang broken three times.
The Daniil Medvedev serve is not as potent a weapon as you would expect for a former Grand Slam Champion, but the World Number 11 has long been someone who can rattle opponents with his return of serve. This year Medvedev has been breaking in 31% of return games played and he will have learned plenty about the opponent when beating him pretty convincingly in Doha.
It may not be quite as wide as that win last week, but Daniil Medvedev can be backed to cover the same line that was presented to him in the other tournament taking place on this Middle East swing.
Prediction
Lay the games with the higher Ranked player in this opening Round contest at the ATP Dubai event.
The Pick :
Daniil Medvedev 2-0 Juncheng Shang
