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Federer wins Dubai Open
Roger Federer won his third consecutive Dubai Open title on Sunday, beating Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 6-1, 6-7(8-6), 6-3 in the tournament final.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:50 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Dubai:
Switzerland's Roger Federer won his third consecutive Dubai Open title on Sunday, beating Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 6-1, 6-7(8-6), 6-3 in the tournament final. Federer and Ljubicic met in an ATP final for the third time this year on Sunday. Federer had won their two previous meetings to lift titles in Doha, Qatar and Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The Swiss was looking to add the Dubai Open title to his growing collection and he made a dominant start in Sunday's final. Quick wrap World number 14 Ljubicic struggled to find his form and Federer quickly wrapped up the first set 6-1. Federer continued to outplay his Croatian opponent at the start of the second set and it looked as though the match would be over within the hour as he opened up a 3-1 lead with an early break of serve. But Ljubicic finally found a way to cope with Federer and he levelled the set at four games apiece by breaking back in the eighth game. Federer had a match point in the 12th game, only for Ljubicic to peg back his illustrious opponent once again. Trading serves Ljubicic then held his serve and won the tiebreaker 8-6 to level the match at one set apiece. Of the seven previous career meetings between the two players, three had gone to a third set with Ljubicic claiming two wins to Federer's one. Breaks of serve were traded at the start of the deciding third set, but Federer gained the upper hand when he broke Ljubicic again in the eighth game with a forehand winner for a 5-3 lead. Clinching win Federer then served out for a 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-3 victory to win the Dubai Open title for a third consecutive year and clinch his third title of the year. It was the 23-year-old's 20th victory in 21 matches this season and he has won 36 of his last 37 matches in all. His only defeat of 2005 came at the hands of Marat Safin in the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Federer has now won his last 16 ATP Tour finals, which is a new record in the Open era of tennis. (AP)Topics mentioned in this article
Tennis David Ferrer Novak Djokovic Bernard Tomic Rafael Nadal Andy Murray Stanislas Wawrinka Roger Federer
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