Roger Federer beats Novak Djokovic 6-3, 7-5 to lift the Dubai Championships title

Roger Federer beat Novak Djokovic to win the Dubai Championship

Roger Federer won his 7th Dubai Championship title today after beating World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in straight sets. He won 6-3, 7-5 in his 126th ATP final, while he also crossed 9,000 aces in singles matches during his victory. He needed 5 aces to reach the landmark figure and he smashed it in style by serving up 12 of them in the final.

The first set was a fairly easy one for the Swiss as he wrapped it up without being in much trouble. However, in the second set, the Serb made a game out of it and had a couple of set points, only to be denied by the former World No. 1, who saved all the 7 break points Djokovic had in the match.

In the opening set, after saving break points at 1-1, Federer just stormed past his opponent, breaking him in the 8th game with a trademark backhand.

Djokovic, however, had 2 break points in the second set with the score at 4-3 in the Serbian’s favour. But, Federer, who was on the top of his serving game today, served up four top-class serves to take the game.

He did the same when Djokovic had two set points at 4-5 as the World No. 1 was not able to break the Swiss maestro’s serve once. After saving the set and levelling it at 5-5, Federer was once again on the backfoot trailing 0-40 on the Serb’s serve. But, Federer went for the kill and broke Djokovic to lead 6-5 before successfully serving for the match.

Playing against Novak is always special: Federer

Federer, after the match, admitted that Djokovic always brings out the best in him and vice-versa.

He said, “Playing against Novak is always special. I think we get the best out of each other. I definitely won the big points tonight so I am pleased I came up with some good serves.”

“Ever since I won here the first time, I fell in love with the tournament. The seventh is quite unbelievable. It sounds pretty crazy to me.”

The World No. 2 admitted that he was even counting the number of aces he served during the match in anticipation of serving his 9,000th ace. He is now 4th in the list of most aces (9,007) served behind Goran Ivanisevic (10,183), Ivo Karlovic (9,375), and Andy Roddick (9,074).

“I even remember which one it was because I was counting them. It was one of the swinger wides.

“It's nice to get past that so I don't have to think about it ever again, or until the next thousand or so,” he admitted.

Federer deserved it: Djokovic

Analyzing the match, the Swiss international said, “The first set belonged to me, but the second set belonged to him more, really. It was a huge game at 5-all, 40-love for him.

“I crawled my way back into that game and ended up breaking him. That was big but the break points I saved were even bigger.”

Djokovic admitted that Federer deserved the win and despite knowing what the 17-time Grand Slam winner was going to do, could not stop him.

“He deserved it,” Djokovic said. “I expected that from him.

“I knew he was going to chip and charge, come to the net, serve and volley.”

This title win for Federer meant that this was the 11th time in 13 years that either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic have won this event.