Roger Federer shone last night in the ATP 500 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships defeating fellow Big Four rival Novak Djokovic 6-3, 7-5 to win his seventh title in Dubai. This matchup was the 37th meeting between the two and was a rematch of the 2011 final and last year's semifinal, which the pair split. Federer entered this tournament as the reigning champion, and retained his title. With the win, Federer not only captured his seventh career title in Dubai but also hit his 9000th career ace, becoming only the fourth player in ATP history to hit 9000 aces. The route both men took to get to the final was much different. Federer easily dispatched 18 year-old lucky loser Borna Coric comfortably in the semifinals, winning 6-2, 6-1 in under an hour. On the other hand, Djokovic looked to be cruising after bageling Tomas Berdych, but the Czech fought admirably to force the match to a third. It was to no avail however as a Djokovic break in the fifth game sent the Serb on his way to a three-set victory, 6-0, 5-7, 6-4.
The match started off with rather comfortable holds, and of course, some world-class rallies, before Federer made his move in the eighth game of the first set. At 30-all, Federer took a forehand deep cross-court, catching Djokovic off guard with a short return, and the Swiss comfortably hit the forehand up the line to set up a break point. Djokovic hit an uncharacteristic backhand long on a routine rally ball to give Federer the break, and he would hit a forehand long which gave Federer the first set 6-3.
The second set started off with rather comfortable holds from both men with Djokovic trying to take the initiative to get a much-needed break to give him a second set lead, but Federer would deny him those opportunities. At 5-4 in the second, Djokovic earned himself two chances to take the set on Federer's serve after a wonderful forehand winner, but the Swiss would save those chances. The Maestro made his move at five-all with another forehand winner to be able to serve out for the set. Djokovic would not go down without a fight though, hitting a wonderfully angled crosscourt forehand to get him up to 0-30 in Federer's serve. The Swiss proved once again his serve was just too overwhelming for the best returner of the game as Federer's serve out wide on championship point was returned short, and Federer comfortably hit it down the line to take home yet another Dubai title. He has now won this tournament on seven different occasions, more than he has won any other tournament with the exception of Wimbledon and Halle.