Dubai will see none of the Top #5 seeds in the Final match, Novak #3 seed lost to Andy Roddick and #4 seed Nikolay Davydenko against Feliciano Lopez. Andy was not active in the top tournaments going on around Europe since the Australian Open, he spent that time participating in smaller tournaments in his home country.
Novak lost in 2 sets 6:7 3:6 in a match that lasted less than 90 minutes First set passed in both players showing powerful serves, and eventually came down to tie-break where Andy managed to win the set. Novak had 9 aces, 22 out of 23 won points on first serve, 2 break points in first set.
Andy had only 61% success of first serves, still he was best when it was the mst important and made two 'mini-breaks' in tie-break to win it 7:5. It was the first set that Novak lost in Dubai and has lasted 50 minutes.
In the second, Novak was not as good, his first serve was not equal in precision to first set, Novak had no aces nor break point opportunities. Andy continued to serve well, after 7 aces in first set, he had another 7 aces in second set.
At 3:4, Novak saved 3 break point, in 8th game another one, though Andy used 5th break point opportunity for 5:3 and pretty much he sealed the victory before his serve game.
Andy will now play in the final against Feliciano Lopez who is currently World #41 and has managed to win against Nikolay Davydenko even though he was down 3:5 in the 3rd set. For Novak, it's trip to the other side of the world and Indian Wells tournament that starts next week.
