Roddick to Meet Lopez for Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships

Dubai, UAE, March 7th, 2008: American serve king Andy Roddick will face unseeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the final of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships on Saturday.

Sixth seeded Roddick outplayed Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, beating the third seeded Serb 7-6 6-3, while Lopez, who also reached the final in 2004 before losing to Roger Federer, took two hours 24-minutes to claim a 6-4 4-6 7-5 victory against fifth seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, recovering from 5-2 down in the final set.

Djokovic had just one opportunity to gain the upper hand against Roddick, holding two break points to lead 3-1. But the American produced two big serves that Djokovic was unable to play, and the set moved on towards a tiebreak.

There was a bizarre incident when Roddick led 5-4 in the tiebreak, when the umpire called a let. Djokovic then appeared to concede an ace to give Roddick two set points. But both players later said they had not heard the call, and Roddick went on to take the tiebreak 7-5.

Once he had secured the first set Roddick looked the more comfortable player in the second. He held a break point to lead 2-0 and another to lead 3-1, before breaking to lead 5-3 when Djokovic made a backhand error. Then it was a simple matter to serve out for a place in his second final of the year.

“I played well tonight and I played the right way. I had to, otherwise I wasn’t going to win”, said Roddick, who last month won the San Jose title. “He wasn’t missing at all in the first set. He wasn’t missing serves and I couldn’t get into his service games. I definitely had to try to stay the course and try and tough out some games before I got the momentum on my side there in the tiebreaker.”

Djokovic had noted who Roddick had fared on the court during the week, not dropping his serve even once, and he admitted he went into the semi-final feeling nervous.

“I came up nervous in the match from the start,” Djokovic said. “I didn’t return well, although of course considering he has the strongest serve in today’s tennis it’s not that easy to get the rhythm.

“So I was trying to hold my serve and I was doing it pretty well in the first set. I had a couple of break points but he served out well, so I didn’t use my opportunities that were given to me. That was the difference. It could go either way if I won that first set.”

In the other semi-final, it seemed at first as if Davydenko would steamroller his way through as he gave up just one point in the first three games. But Lopez eventually began to compete on equal terms.

He recovered the break in the fifth game, only to have Davydenko break again when he netted a backhand volley from Davydenko’s strong return.

Undeterred, Lopez broke back once more in the next game, and a netted backhand gave him another break and left him serving for the first set.

Both players faced break points in the second set, Davydenko in the opening game and Lopez when down 4-3, and it was eventually the Russian who made the breakthrough, earning the only break of the set at 5-4.

In a dramatic third set, Davydenko broke to lead 3-1 and moved on to lead 5-2, before Lopez staged his remarkable fight back and swept the last five games.

“I think I was lucky,” said Lopez, who despite his world ranking of 41 earned his third victory over a top 10 opponent this week. “I was down 5-3 and he made a few mistakes in that game when I broke him. I took my chances and won this match. It was really good for me, because to win a match from 5-2 in the third is tough. I made it, but I think I was a little bit lucky.”

Davydenko acknowledged that the mistakes he made when serving at 5-3 were his undoing.

“It should be my match, but he won,” said Davydenko, who nevertheless improved on his previous best performance in Dubai by reaching the semi-finals. “At 5-3 I think I win the match. It was bad luck. A few points on my serve I did a mistake and he played pretty well, tried to make no mistakes and pushed the ball back.”