Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Matteo Berrettini Tips, Prediction & Live Stream - Berrettini to hand Tsitsipas sixth quarter-final defeat in a row

This should be a tight contest, but I'm backing Berrettini to edge it and secure his spot in the Dubai semi-finals. Tsitsipas has been down on confidence for quite some time now and has struggled to clear this hurdle at tournaments, losing his last five quarter-finals on the bounce. Berrettini is playing some of his best hardcourt tennis in years at the moment and finally looks to have recovered from his various long-term injury concerns. Berrettini won the last meeting between the pair and the Italian can double down to reach the final four in Dubai.

Tsitsipas leads 3-1, but the Greek was a vastly different player to what he is today. Berrettini prevailed 7-6 7-5 on the clay of Gstaad in 2024 in their most-recent encounter.

There's no two ways around it, Tsitsipas has been awful over the last few months and he hasn't really given any indication he's about to turn things around.

Usually one of his favourite periods of the season, Tsitsipas suffered some terrible defeats down under in January, losing to Alexander Shevchenko in the United Cup and bombing out of the Australian Open in the first round against Alex Michelsen.

The Greek then proceeded to lose to Mattia Bellucci in the Rotterdam quarter-finals before an inexplicable loss to Hamad Medjedovic in Doha last week after the Serbian had torn his hamstring in the last 10 minutes of the match.

Twice a runner-up in Dubai, Tsitsipas has given himself an opportunity to snap a five-match losing streak in quarter-finals by beating Lorenzo Sonego and Karen Khachanov.

Berrettini also had a disappointing Australian swing, losing in the opening round of Brisbane to Jordan Thompson and going out in the second round at Melbourne Park against Holger Rune.

The Italian also suffered an opening round defeat in Rotterdamn against Tallon Griekspoor, but he's started to build some momentum in the Middle East over the last fortnight.

Indeed, Berrettini has reached back-to-back hardcourt quarter-finals for the first time in his career, beating Novak Djokovic and avenging his Rotterdam loss to Griekspoor in Doha before going down to Jack Draper, while he's continued his good form in Dubai this week, defeating Gael Monfils and Chris O'Connell without dropping a set.