Hubbie to get back on track

While he showed a great level at the very start of the season, Hubbie was picked up by Ugo Humbert in Marseille then Tallon Griekspoor in Rotterdam. He often has a few less good periods in the season (otherwise he will be top 3), in which of his phases will he be in Dubai?

So I first look at the Pole's comfort in this tournament and observe that he has 8 victories for 5 defeats. Nothing very shocking. He wins when he is favorite, loses when he is an outsider except in 2022 where he beats Sinner 2 sets to 0 before losing to Rublev in 3 sets. So we say to ourselves that he feels pretty good here, and we move on to Struff. In general, the German comes across as a guy who is either pretty bad in brute mode without brains, or quite "clutch" and resilient in important points. It's true that this guy is always motivated and positive. I don't really understand people who say he's terrible, the guy is still top 30! We of course expect a battle of serves and tie-breaks, but strangely, their previous meetings did not result in very close numerical scores with 4 breaks in their last meeting and 3 in the one before on grass. A match which generally doesn't make you want to bet too much because even if Struff can be quite "clutch", he didn't show very good form in Doha, losing 4 and 4 against O'Connell in the first round...