{"id":98446,"date":"2026-02-23T15:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=98446"},"modified":"2026-02-23T17:43:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:43:56","slug":"atp-dubai-day-2-predictions-mensik-hurkacz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/23\/atp-dubai-day-2-predictions-mensik-hurkacz\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Dubai Day 2 Predictions Including Jakub Mensik vs Hubert Hurkacz"},"content":{"rendered":"

It should be a terrific second day of ATP Dubai tennis. Jakub Mensik, who upset Jannik Sinner a few days ago in Doha, will attempt to handle Hubert Hurkacz’s massive serve. Four of the 12 scheduled matches are predicted in this piece. The other contests, including Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Ugo Humbert<\/a> and Daniil Medvedev vs Shang Juncheng<\/a>, are covered in two other articles. But who will advance?<\/p>\n

ATP Dubai Day 2 Predictions<\/h2>\n

Jenson Brooksby vs Zizou Bergs<\/h4>\n

Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\n

Brooskby lost in the opening round in Doha to Jiri Lehecka, while Bergs managed one victory before falling to the same opponent. Both men like using variety, which makes this an intriguing battle. In such a battle of craft, I favor Brooksby slightly more. The American is adept at analyzing matches well and biding his time if necessary to win.
\nPrediction: Brooksby in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Karen Khachanov vs Alexander Shevchenko<\/h4>\n

Head-to-head: Khachanov 1-1 Shevchenko<\/p>\n

If Khachanov’s level is similar to his three-set defeat against Australian Open<\/a> champion Carlos Alcaraz last week in Doha, he will almost certainly triumph here. Shevchenko entered the main draw as a lucky loser. The Kazakhstani is a clean ball-striker who can be dangerous at his best. However, I do not trust him to play that well, and it may not be enough against Khachanov anyway.
\nPrediction: Khachanov in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Arthur Fils vs Jiri Lehecka<\/h4>\n

Head-to-head: Fils 2-1 Lehecka<\/p>\n

Hopefully, Fils recovered well from his run to the ATP Doha final. The young star performed exceptionally to reach that stage before completely running out of steam against Alcaraz. Concerns about fatigue and any discomfort with the severe injury he recently returned from are legitimate. Despite Fils beating Lehecka in Qatar just a few days ago, I feel the Frenchman’s level will be lower here and lead to elimination.
\nPrediction: Lehecka in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Jakub Mensik vs Hubert Hurkacz<\/h4>\n

Head-to-head: Hurkacz 2-0 Lehecka<\/p>\n

This pair’s previous meetings were very close. Hurkacz won in five sets at the 2024 Australian Open and in a final deciding set tiebreak at the 2025 Italian Open. Hurkacz has a 1-3 win\/loss record since returning from a serious injury<\/a>. Playing a man who beat Sinner and reached a semifinal last week is not an ideal matchup. I think his younger opponent will defeat him this time.
\nPrediction: Mensik in 2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It should be a terrific second day of ATP Dubai tennis. Jakub Mensik, who upset Jannik Sinner a few days ago in Doha, will attempt to handle Hubert Hurkacz’s massive serve. Four of the 12 scheduled matches are predicted in this piece. The other contests, including Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Ugo Humbert and Daniil Medvedev vs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4708,"featured_media":94825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[16471,17966,18371,18372,4849,2916,15711,18805,19130,8212,15981,13325,17201,844,15516,2373,2369,12932,16341],"class_list":["post-98446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alexander-shevchenko","tag-alexander-shevchenko-predictions","tag-arthur-fils","tag-arthur-fils-predictions","tag-atp-dubai-predictions","tag-hubert-hurkacz","tag-hubert-hurkacz-predictions","tag-jakub-mensik","tag-jakub-mensik-predictions","tag-jenson-brooksby","tag-jenson-brooksby-predictions","tag-jiri-lehecka","tag-jiri-lehecka-predictions","tag-karen-khachanov","tag-karen-khachanov-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-zizou-bergs","tag-zizou-bergs-predictions"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98446"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98476,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98446\/revisions\/98476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}