Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer will battle for Dubai title
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Version 0 of 1. The top two players in the world will contest the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Saturday after contrasting semi-final victories. The world No2, Roger Federer, thrashed the Croatia teenager Borna Coric 6-2, 6-1 in 57 minutes before Novak Djokovic needed more than twice as long to beat Tomas Berdych in three sets, prevailing 6-0, 5-7, 6-4. “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, who will attempt to win his 84th tour-level title against the Australian Open champion, Djokovic. “I felt like after five games I knew more or less what to expect and I realised what had worked until that point and what had not. I can see why he has caused difficulties for some of the top guys and he still has a lot of room for improvement in his game. “He does a really good job for a big guy. It’s unbelievable how, in the past 10 years, we have seen so many big guys moving well from the baseline. I think he returns very well, especially off second serves, and that’s such a huge part of today’s game I believe.” Coric, who had beaten the world No3, Andy Murray, in the quarter-finals, said: “He was just way too good for me. I was feeling so rushed. I didn’t have any time to play my game plan.” Djokovic looked set for an equally comfortable win over Berdych when he raced through the opening set 6-0, only to lose the second, despite breaking Berdych when the fourth seed initially served for the set at 5-3. A second break of serve gave Berdych the set 7-5 but Djokovic bounced back to take a hard-fought decider 6-4 with a single break of serve. |