Federer Beats Youzhny to Win Dubai Tennis Championships
Dubai, UAE, March 3rd, 2007: Top seed Roger Federer defeated Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny 6-4 6-3 on Saturday to reclaim the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open title he gave up last year to Rafael Nadal.
Although Youzhny competed well, making Federer work hard to close out the match, he failed to bother the world number one after losing an early lead.
The unseeded Youzhny broke to lead 1-0 by hitting a winning return off a second serve, but Federer was soon back on level terms after Youzhny double-faulted on break point at 2-1.
Federer then broke again to lead 5-3, failed to serve out the set, but then broke a third time when Youzhny netted a backhand.
Federer made a perfect start to the second set, breaking for 2-0 and giving up only three points in the first three games. He also held four break points at 4-1, and no less than five match points on Youzhny’s serve at 5-2 before closing out the match on his seventh match point.
“It feels very nice,” said Federer after his comfortable victory. “I think the matches were extremely tough here this week for me. I thought actually all my opponents played very good against me, so to come through as I did against Mikhail tonight, I think that’s to be rated very high.
“I think he’s playing very well and I really played extremely well at the right moments once again. Tonight to come through and get the title back from losing it last year, it’s a great feeling. I’m still on an incredible run and haven’t lost for many months, so I hope I can keep this up in the States.”
Youzhny said he wasn’t tired after reaching his second final in two weeks, but that his serve had let him down.
“It’s tough to beat Roger. The only chance to beat him is to serve unbelievably good, but today I didn’t serve well,” said the disappointed Russian, who had led 2-0 in the first set.
“When you play against Roger we understand you can be 5-0 and the set is not finished. I tried to play every point good, but I had very bad percentage on my first serve. I need to improve my serve if I want to be a little bit close to him.
The doubles title went to Fabrice Santoro and Nenad Zimonjic, who defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Radek Stepanek 7-5 6-7(3) 10-7 (match tiebreak). The victory added another chapter to Santoro’s remarkable history in Dubai, after he reached the 1993 singles final and won the title in 2002.
The Dubai Tennis Championships is owned and organised by Dubai Duty Free and takes place under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
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