Murray Defeats Djokovic in Dubai

Murray Defeats Djokovic in Dubai

Andy Murray, the triple Grand Slam finalist from Scotland, finally topped Novak Djokovic, the triple Grand Slam titleholder from Serbia, when he ended Djokovic's three-year winning sequence in the Dubai Open on Friday.

Murray, who was beaten by Djokovic in the semi-finals of last month's Australian Open, overcame his rival with the score 6-2, 7-5.

It was a thrilling match, with surprising twists and turns. Djokovic attacked the net far more than usual, but Murray seemed to be more of a consistent player.

"It's obviously great any time you beat the world number one," Murray said. "I just tried to do some of the same things I did in Australia.

"I was very close there against one of the greatest players ever, and today I did what I needed to - even though it nearly got away from me at the end."

He saw his chance when after a quarter of an hour Djokovic, despite his very good start, suddenly faltered.

He consolidated to 5-2 with a good recovery, one rally with a net attack, the other with baseline containment, scores that broke Djokovic.

Two of the points came of Murray's own effort. A backhand topspin reeled at the in-rushing Djokovic's feet to get Murray to love-30, and then two blazing cross-court backhand drives earned him the set.

It was greeted with huge applause from the large number of British emigrants in the 5,000 crowd, and Murray's continued progress was greeted enthusiastically.

And so Djokovic, the recipient of Serbia's highest civil award and the Laureus World sportsman of the Year, was defeated.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Saturday March 03 2012, 4:55 AM EDT. Ref: google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0