Unseeded Feliciano Lopez battles No. 6 Andy Roddick in Saturday’s final of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Roddick has won all three previous meetings in straight sets and on hard courts.
Both players come into the final playing their best tennis of the season. Roddick leads the tournament with 62 aces and Lopez follows with 45. Lopez has beaten three Top 10 opponents en route to his fifth career ATP final (1-3), defeating No. 10 Tomas Berdych in the 2nd Rd., No. 4 David Ferrer in the quarterfinals and No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko in the semifinals. Roddick has not lost his serve (holding 40 games) in four matches, highlighted by back-to-back wins over No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the last two rounds. He is 24-13 lifetime in finals.
The winner receives $300,000 and 300 South African Airways ATP Ranking points while the runner-up earns $153,000 and 210 points.
Lopez is trying to become the fourth Spaniard to win the Dubai title since the tournament began in 1993, joining Alex Corretja (1998), Juan Carlos Ferrero (2001) and Rafael Nadal (2006). Roddick is the first American to reach the final here.
The 26-year-old Madrid native, who reached his first career ATP final here four years ago (l. to Federer), comes in with a 5-4 match record on the season. He lost early in his first four ATP main draws this year, in the second round at the Australian Open and first round in Sydney, Marseille and Rotterdam. He has an 11-4 career mark in Dubai.
The No. 41st-ranked Lopez is 16-32 against Top 10 players in his career and this is the first time he’s defeated three Top 10 opponents in the same tournament. By reaching the final, he will move to around No. 31 and IF he wins the title, he will improve to around No. 29.
Roddick, who is making his Dubai debut this year, is playing in his fourth tournament of the season (14-2 record), with his best a 24th career title in San Jose (d. Stepanek) on Feb. 24; he was a quarterfinalist in Memphis last week (l. to Soderling) and reached the third round at the Australian Open (l. to Kohlschreiber 8-6 in the fifth set). He hasn’t been broken this week and going back to last week he’s only been broken twice (in last seven matches).
Roddick is playing in his 38th career ATP level singles final, going 24-13 and the American is trying to win his first ATP title in Asia. His previous final came in Bangkok in 2004 (l. to Federer).
The 25-year-old American is 49-10 in his career against left-handed players (5-0 this year) and this is the first time he’s playing a lefty in an ATP final.
Roddick will remain No. 6 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings. (ATP Digital Services)
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