A preview of the Federer vs Djokovic match upcoming at the Dubai Tennis Championships. Prediction provided as well as head to head stats.
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will meet for the 21st time in their careers this weekend as the two rivals are set to clash in the 2011 Dubai Tennis Championships.
From a ranking perspective nothing will change with the result as Djokovic, who is currently ranked third in the world, won the title last season. Should he defeat Federer in the final the Serbian will simply duplicate last season's result while Federer has all to gain as he was idle during this part of the season last year.
Head to head Federer leads Djokovic 13-7 with many of their matches having been played on the hard court surface. Seventeen times the two have met on cement with Federer holding an 11-6 record on that specific surface although Djokovic did win their last meeting.
Just a month ago at the 2011 Australian Open, Djokovic handled Federer in straight sets with only one tiebreaker played in those sets and the Serbian should draw a lot of confidence from that result.
However one important trend to take note of with this match is that Federer has beaten Djokovic in four straight ATP matches. Grand Slams are not ATP events and the Majors follow a different tournament format than the smaller more concise tour events. Federer, nearly 30 years old, does not face the same fatigue issues in the late rounds of ATP events than he does in the late rounds of Grand Slams.
Federer is the player on better form in Dubai as Djokovic has lost sets en route to the final where the Swiss Maestro has not. The pressure is on Djokovic here as he won the title last season and he beat Federer just last month as well.
Look for Federer to come out free-swinging and my prediction is a win for the world number two in two close sets.