For once in recent Tennis tournaments, the seedings have worked out perfectly for the Dubai Championships in the men's competition, with both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer navigating their way through to the final round. For Federer it proved to be a relatively simple task to prevail over the teenage surprise Borna Coric in their last-four tie, as the Swiss maestro utilised his far superior experience and ability (in a manner that Andy Murray was unable to) to sweep aside the Croatian. His Serbian nemesis had a far tougher match, being taken to three sets by Tomas Berdych before finding just enough to complete the task.
Coric, ranked 84 in the world, had breezed past Britain's Murray in the quarter-final, the only real surprise among the last-eight round victors, but proved to be no match against the Swiss number one. Despite having a number of break points on Federer's serve and even managing to break once in the first set, the young man's opportunity of making his first ATP tour final was dashed, as the number two seed required just 56 minutes to complete a 6-2 6-1 demolition of the unseeded 'lucky loser' from the qualifying tournament. Federer moved into his ninth final in an event that he seems to have had many fond memories of over the years, with the enviable record of six previous titles.
Berdych was always likely to provide a far tougher test of the number one seed's abilities in the other semi-final and so it proved.
Despite a far from encouraging head to head record that might have suggested that Djokovic would comfortably come through his semi, he found the Czech a resilient opponent who took his chances when they were presented to him. It had all seemed so different in the first set as Djokovic blitzed it 6-0. His rival found his feet in the second set though and his passing shots, to level the match at a set apiece 7-5.
There was to be no stopping the Serb in the decider though as he upped his level once more to take it and the match 6-4. It ended a decent run at the event for Berdych, who has made the final of the event for the past two years.
