World number one Novak Djokovic clinched his fourth Dubai Tennis Championships title on Saturday with a straigh sets victory over sixth-ranked Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3. The match lasted more than 90 minutes at the Dubai Tennis Stadium which was full with 5,000 spectators.
Djokovic is currently on an 18-match winning streak dating back from his title win at the year-end Barclays ATP World Tour Finals 2012. The top-ranked Serbian won the Australian Open last month.
For winning the title, Djokovic earned $429,600 in prize money plus 500 ATP Rankings points. Berdych received $193,700 and 300 points.
“My serving today was great, [I had a] very high percentage of first serves, over 200 [kilometres per hour],” said Djokovic. “I really felt that I could rely on my serve. And in tough moments, that part of my game actually helped me to prevail. To be honest, I haven’t played as aggressive and maybe as good as I have played in yesterday’s match [versus Juan Martin del Potro] or previous matches during this week. But that’s also because I had [my] toughest challenge.
“Tomas was obviously aggressive from the start and feeling confident after a win against Roger [Federer]. I backed it up and I was playing from my back foot a bit and giving him too much time to control the points. That resulted with a break down, and then he missed a few easy shots on break points first and second set that gave me the victory basically. I felt when I came from break down that I started believing in myself a little bit more. I hung in there and stayed tough. This is the important thing.”
