In an all-Serbian affair, top seeded Novak Djokovic faces Janko Tipsarevic in the third quarter-final of Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, an ATP World Tour 500 event being played at Dubai, UAE.

The Serbian is making his sixth appearance in Dubai and has won it three times in a row from 2009-11. Djokovic made a brilliant start to his Dubai title defense with a straight set victory over German Cedrik-marcel Stebe in the first round. In the second round, he battled past Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine to reach the quarter-finals.

Prior to that, the Serbian claimed his fifth Grand Slam title and third at the Australian Open this season, having previously triumphed in 2008 and 2011. With the win, he became the fourth man in the Open Era to claim three or more Australian Open titles, joining Andre Agassi, Federer and Mats Wilander. Besides this feat, Djokovic became the fifth man in the history of tennis to win three consecutive grand slam titles in the Open Era, joining Rod Laver, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

His opponent - Janko Tipsarevic is currently ranked 9 in the world and has two titles to his name. Tipsarveic started the year on a strong note as he reached the final of Chennai Open and then last week, lost in semis against Michael Llodra at Marseille Open.

Both players have met four times before and Djokovic leads 3-1 in head to head contest. Last time they met at ATP World Tour Finals, where Tipsarveic won 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

TennisEarth Pick: Djokovic is riding on nine match win streak and it should be a difficult task for Tipsarevic to stop him.