Second seed Stan Wawrinka battled past Marcos Baghdatis 6-4 7-6 (15-13) after 1 hour and 54 minutes in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships to clinch his 13th title in 22 finals played in his career. Wawrinka claimed his ninth straight final and his second title of the year.
The first set went on serve until the fifth game when Baghdatis broke serve on his second opportunity after a crosscourt forehand exchange to take a 3-2 lead. Wawrinka broke straight back to love with a forehand pass crosscourt in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3. Baghdatis rallied from 0-40 to 30-40 but Wawrinka held his serve for 5-4.
At 5-4 Wawrinka earned three break points after Baghdatis made consecutive double faults but the Cypriot recovered to 40-40 thanks to an ace and two errors from Wawrinka. Baghdatis saved four consecutive set points but Wawrinka hit a backhand down the line to earn his fifth set point. The Swiss player converted the break on his fifth set point as Baghdatis made his third double fault to wrap up the 42-minute first set. Baghdatis made seven double faults and won 42 percent of his first serve points in the first set. On the contrary Wawrinka won 70 percent of his first serve points.
The second set went on serve with no break points and came down to the tie-break. Wawrinka went up a mini-break in the tie-break to take a 4-1 in the tie-break but made two double faults allowing Baghdatis to win five of the next six points- Wawrinka saved five set points at 5-6, 7-8, 8-9, 9-10 and 11-12 before earning his fourth championship point with his backhand. Wawrinka sealed the title by 15-13 on his fourth match point when Baghdatis sent his return wide after a thrilling 24-minute tie-break in the second set. Wawrinka won his sixth straight match against Baghdatis.
Wawrinka has played the Dubai tournament for the first time in the last eight years. He has not lost a final since the 2013 s’Hertogenbosch final where he lost to Nicolas Mahut.
Baghdatis is 4-9 in all his title matches and 0-5 down in finals since clinching his last title in Sydney in 2010.
Wawrinka clinched his first title aftre coming within two points of losing to Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round.
“I had a great week. The level was very high and the atmosphere her was great. Marcos is a good friend. It’s always tough to play against him. I had to fight until the end. It was a crazy ti-break. It was great final, a really tough one. I am really happy with the way I played today, said Wawrinka
Despite the defeat in the final Baghdatis enjoyed a successful week in which he come back from a difficult period after a series of injury problems.
“The atmosphere out there was the best I have ever had. I want to thank everyone for coming out”, said Baghdatis after the match
Andreas Seppi and Simone Bolelli beat Marc Lopez and Feliciano Lopez 6-2 3-6 14-12 in a marathon doubles final. The Italians broke twice to win the first four games and looked in control of the match after cruising to 6-2 in the first set but the Spaniards broke serve to draw level in the second set forcing the match to a thrilling super tie-break.
Marc and Feliciano Lopez opened up a 5-1 lead in the super tie-break. Seppi and Bolelli clawed their way back into the match but the Spanish team got two chances to clinch the match at 9-8 and 10-9. Seppi and Bolelli saved two match points before closing out the super tie-break 14-12.
“I am very happy because Dubai is a very big tournament and we have the Davis Cup next week, so it’s very good for our confidence to win a tournament like that”, said Bolelli
