TENNIS in DEPTH.

Novak Djokovic continued his superb start to 2011 by defeating Roger Federer to secure a third straight title in Dubai. The Serbian followed up his Australian Open victory earlier this month with a 6-3 6-3 win in Saturday’s final to take his winning streak to 14 matches. Djokovic broke twice in the opening set as he took it in 33 minutes. And he fought back from a break down in a pulsating second set to end four-time champion Federer’s challenge.

It was another highly impressive display from the 23-year-old Serbian, who also defeated Federer in straight sets in the Australian Open semi-finals. Djokovic might have gone into the match with a 7-13 record against Federer but he picked up where he had left off in Melbourne by making a storming start. Two Federer errors gave up the first break in game three and with Djokovic making 93% of his first serves in his opening four games, and attacking relentlessly from the baseline, he was quickly in control. Djokovic had the chance of a double break in game five but blazed a forehand wide on his first opportunity, before Federer played a beautiful forehand winner on the second, but the Swiss could not withstand the pressure when serving to stay in the set and was broken again. The Djokovic storm finally abated, briefly, at 1-1 in the second set but Federer looked to have blown his chance when he hooked a forehand into the tramlines on his first break point of the day. However, with the Serb now serving down at 40% he was suddenly under pressure himself and a wayward backhand conceded the break.

Federer could not capitalise though, opening at 3-2 with a double fault and successive forehand errors to slip 0-40 down before dumping a smash into the bottom of the net. It was a poor game and the belief appeared to drain from the 16-time Grand Slam champion, who again found himself at 0-40 in his next service game and, despite seeing off two break points, could only thump a backhand long on the third. A pumped-up Djokovic was not about to let his man off the hook and reeled off his fifth consecutive game to wrap up the win in just 71 minutes.

“Tonight was one of the better matches I’ve played in a while,” said Djokovic. “Of course, against Roger it’s always a big challenge, I had to be on top of my game and I played a perfect match. “I’m feeling good on the court, managing to play the best that I can, and hopefully I can continue.” Federer said: “I had a tough start and a tough end but Novak played a solid tournament all the way through and deserved to win. It was a tough end for me but still a great tournament.”

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