• Dubai Tennis Championships

Federer and Djokovic through to Dubai final

ESPN staff
February 27, 2015
Roger Federer has won the Dubai Tennis Championships six times in his career, including the 2014 title © AP
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Roger Federer eased into his ninth Dubai Tennis Championships final with Novak Djokovic battling past Tomas Berdych to set up a showdown between the top two players in the world.

Defending champion Federer strolled to 6-2 6-1 victory over Crotian teenager Borna Coric, who stunned Andy Murray in the quarter-finals.

Coric nicked a break from world No.2 Federer midway through the first set but was otherwise blown away on a blustery day at the Dubai Duty Free Stadium.

Federer needed just 56 minutes to dispatch lucky loser Coric and move within one win of a seventh Dubai title.

"Maybe I was a bit tentative in the beginning, but I was still able to get off to somewhat of a good start, not being broken early, then breaking him right away," Federer told the ATP website.

"I felt like after five games I knew more or less what to expect, and I realised what had worked until that point and what had not."

World No.1 Djokovic held off a spirited fightback from Berdych to win 6-0 5-7 6-4, but had let his opponent back in to the match with 48 unforced errors in all having been a set and a break up.

"You don't expect anything less than hard work against someone who has been a top 10 player for many years," Djokovic said. "Even when it went as perfectly as possible in the first set and I was a break up I knew it wasn't over.

"There were a lot of unforced errors because I just wasn't feeling the ball great."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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