Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will clash in the Dubai final.
Federer
In the semi Roger gave a tennis lesson to the uprising star Borna Coric to defeat the Croatian 6-2 6-1. The Swiss Maestro was absent only for a couple of games in the first set (from 3-0 to 3-2), besides that the world no.2 was really perfect. The match lasted just 57 minutes. Match Stats
Roger commented “Maybe I was a bit tentative in the beginning, but I was still able to get off to somewhat of a good start, not being broken early, then breaking him right away,” said Federer. “I felt like after five games I knew more or less what to expect, and I realized what had worked until that point and what had not.”
Djokovic
Nole had a much more difficult encounter against Tomas Berdych in the other semi. After an easy first set (6-1 for Djokovic), the world no.1 struggled with some unforced errors in the 2nd to lose 7-5. Nole won the decisive break (at love) in the 5th game of the decider to finally win the match 6-1 5-7 6-4 in just over 2 hours.
Nole commented “Even after the first set that went as perfectly as possible and when I was break up I knew that the match is not over. I just wanted to stay on that level, but it was hard. I started making some unforced errors, backed up a little bit, less first serves in. Then he stepped in. From that moment on it was an even match, a lot of unforced errors from my side. [I] just wasn’t feeling the ball great in the third but somehow managed to hang in there.”
The final
This will be the 37th match between Roger and Nole. Head to head is 19-17 for the Swiss. Nole commented “When you play Roger, it’s always a great challenge. If you want to win you have to play your best tennis, especially against Roger in the final of any event, but here particularly. Because I feel like this is the kind of a surface and conditions that it suits his game the best.”
Prediction
Impossible to say. It is going to be in 3 set for somebidy. We go for Roger as he should be fresher (he didn’t play much in the semi) and the very fast court helps his game.
INTERVIEWS |
GREAT SHOTS FROM ROGER |
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