Roger Federer continued his resurgence as he beat Andy Murray in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in a well-fought 96 minutes, winning 7-5, 6-4. Although that can hardly seem like an intense or arduous match compared to the six hour long Australian Open final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, it still had it’s moments of tennis brilliance. With the win, Federer also continued his effort to even out his losing record to Murray, now nearly level at 7-8 in lifetime meetings between the two.[Gallery at bottom]
Winning 33 of his past 35 matches since losing in the semifinals of the US Open to Djokovic, Federer has been blazing through the draws, including taking home the winner’s trophy last week in Rotterdam.
“It’s great. There is no substitute to confidence,” declared Federer. “I’ve played great. It’s not just that I’ve taken my chances. I really thought I played a good tournament here. I played a great tournament in Rotterdam. The end of last year was exceptional, so it’s nice to also win a tournament outdoors now. That gives me hope that I can carry it over to Indian Wells and Miami.”
Federer caught momentum winning the first set and came out firing in the second, quickly going up 3-1. The tables quickly turned as Murray pressured the Swiss into errors, taking the next three games to go up 4-3. But that is where Murray hit a roadblock and dropped his form, never to regain it for the rest of the match.
“I think second set he played better than me,” said Murray. “For sure I made a few too many mistakes in the second, and he was playing a lot more aggressive than in the first set. But overall it was a good week. It was perfect preparation for the stretch over in America. Got through very tough matches against top, top players, so it was good.”
It’s hard to imagine that the last time the world #3 played the world #4 was over one year ago but that was precisely the case before today’s match. Federer (currently #3) and Murray (currently #4) last met at the ATP World Tour Finals in London in November 2010 with Federer prevailing then as well. Time may pass, Federer may falter against Nadal, and Murray may still be the hardest worker in terms of physicality in the business, but that still didn’t change the outcome from the last time the two met on court. Murray has exuded better mental strength since his Australian Open and has stayed fairly positive compared to previous years, but with that, what more does Murray have to do in order to win on a consistent basis and against the top 3? Does he need to change his style, update his core team again, or is it simply that he hasn’t fully matured yet? Only time will tell, but I hope he figures it out sooner rather than later for his and all his fans’ sakes.
(Photos credit to Reuters and Getty Images)
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