TENNIS DUBAI – Roger Federer clinched his seventh title in his “home” tournament at Dubai with a 6-3 7-5 win against Novak Djokovic. Two breaks (one for each set) were enough for Federer to defend his last year’s title in the ATP 500 Tournament. Federer converted his two break points, while Djokovic failed to transform his seven chances. Diego Sampaolo
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic met for the 37th time in their careers. They played for the second consecutive year in Dubai after Federer won a fantastic semifinal in the 2014 edition before clinching the title in the final against Tomas Berdych. Djokovic was bidding to win his 50th career title and improve the record of wins of his coach Boris Becker.
Djokovic earned two break points at 40-15 in the third game as Federer was serving at 1-1 but Federer held his serve by saving them to take the 2-1 lead. Djokovic held his serve to draw level to 2-2. Federer held his third service game to love to take the 3-2 edge. At 40-40 Federer sent his backhand into the net and Djokovic held his serve to draw his serve for 3-3.
Federer brought up the first break point of the match with his down-the-line winner in the eighth game and converted his first opportunity to open up a 5-3 lead when Djokovic hit his forehand long. He went on to serve out for the first set to clinch the first set with 6-3 after 37 minutes. Federer hit four aces in the first set.
At 3-2 in the second set Djokovic Federer hit the 9000th ace of his career at the start of the second set to become the fourth player in history to strike at least 9000 aces after Goran Ivanisevic, Ivo Karlovic and Andy Roddick and held his serve for 3-3. The first six games went on serve until 3-3 without a single deuce.
Federer put pressure on Djokovic with down-the line backhands but the Serb fought back from 0-30 down by winning four consecutive points.
Djokovic got his chances to push the match to the third set at 15-40 on serve in the 8th game and then in the 10th game when he earned two set points but he failed to convert them.
Djokovic earned two break point chances but Federer saved them at 3-4 15-40 down and won the game with two service winners and two aces to draw level to 4-4.
Djokovic won the ninth game for 5-4 40-15 and brought up two set points on Federer’s serve but the Swiss legend saved them in the most crucial stage of the match with two aces and a service winner. Djokovic wasted a 40-0 lead but committed a costly double fault on his serve.
Federer converted his first break point with his cross-court forehand winner to take the lead with 6-5. The World Number 2 hit the net on his first match point and had to fend off a seventh break point before wrapping it up on the second match point with a powerful forehand after 84 minutes to win his seventh win in Dubai with 6-3 7-5
Federer improved his winning record to 20-17 in his head-to-head matches over Djokovic and won his first final against his Serbian rival since Cincinnati in 2012.
In his 11 appearances in the Dubai tournament he had already lifted this trophy in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012 and 2014 and reached two more finals in 2006 and 2011. He has a win-loss record of 47-5 in this tournament. The only other tournaments where Federer won seven times are Wimbledon and Halle
Federer served very well hitting 12 aces taking his total to 9007 aces in his career. He converted on his two break point chances and won the most crucial points of the match. Djokovic earned seven break points but he failed to convert on any of them.
Federer clinched the 84th trophy of his career and his second title of the year after Brisbane where he made history by winning the milestone 1000th career match of his career.
“I think the first set belonged to me, whereas the second set belonged to him. He created many more opportunities. I struggled to get into his service games more frequently. It seemed like the moment I wasn’t serving great he created chances for himself and put a lot of pressure on me. It was a huge game at 5-5 40-0 for him. I crawled my way back into the game and ended up breaking him. That was big, but I think that the break points saved were even bigger toninight. We get out the best of each other. I am pleased I did some good serving when I had to. I definitely won the big points tonight. It’s really become a very nice rivalry. I think we play very nicely against each other and it seems people like the way we play against each other as well. Novak has become such an unbelievable player especially in the past five, six years. It is a pressure playing against him every single time again”, said Federer.
“Roger served very well. He converted on his two break points, while I earned seven break points but I didn’t convert on any of them”, said Djokovic