Jaziri: I have nothing to lose against Djokovic

In 2018, the Tunisian swept his way through to last four

Malek Jaziri has accepted the challenge of facing world No. 1 and four-time champion Novak Djokovic in their opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open that gets under way tomorrow.

Now the second-best men’s tennis player of the Arab world after Egypt’s Mohammad Safwat, Jaziri has enjoyed some of his most successful moments of the Tour at the Dubai tournament. In his most recent appearance here in 2018, the 36-year-old Tunisian swept his way through to the final four after upsetting world No. 4 and top seed Grigor Dimitrov in the first round, Robin Haase in the second and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-final before going down to eventual champion Roberto Bautista Agut.

Even though he has had some of his best results here, the main draw has rarely been kind to Jaziri. In 2013, he had opened against world No 2 Roger Federer, in 2016 he met Djokovic in Round Two and in 2017 he faced world No 1 Andy Murray in the opening round. In 2018, the Tunisian caved in 1-6, 2-6 against Djokovic, but such was not the case in his match against Federer as he had stretched the Swiss ace into three sets.

“I have this homely feeling in Dubai and that can push me along to reach my best against Novak,” Jaziri told media after the men’s draw, yesterday.

“He is probably the toughest opponents I have played in Dubai so far. Playing against him again here is good and not so good. It is always not easy when you are up against the world No 1 or 2, but then it is better to play such players in the first round than in the quarter-final,” he added.