Dubai Draw 2015: Federer Takes Doubles Wildcard
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships draw for 2015 just landed and the surprising news accompanying it is that Fed has taken a wildcard into the doubles event.
He’ll play with fellow Swiss Michael Lammer whilst Djokovic will team up with Laszlo Djere; clearly a good coup by the tournament organisers here that will result in more ticket sales and larger crowds for doubles matches throughout the week.
In terms of the main even Roger will be looking to win a 7th Dubai title and successfully defend the title he won last year. I think Dubai was probably his best win last year, beating Djokovic and then Berdych in the final was hugely impressive so this year it will be difficult to top that.
As is always the case after an extended break and the last match being a tough loss we’re not sure what to expect from the GOAT, all we know is he’s been practising in Dubai for the last 2 weeks or so, enjoys the surface / playing condition at the Aviation Club and has a great record at the event. Surely that bodes well for a successful tournament.
Federer’s Projected Opponents
- Round 1: Youzhny
- Round 2: Verdaco / Garcia-Lopez
- Quarter Final: Bautista-Agut
- Semi Final: Murray
- Final: Djokovic
Thoughts on the Draw
First up is Mikhael Youzhny whom Roger holds an imperious record against. As if that wasn’t bad enough for the Russian from what I saw of his game at the Australian Open he looks to have faded significantly compared to how he played 2/3 years ago. All very underpowered and sluggish. Luckily the court speed in Dubai will help him somewhat but hard to really see past a Fed straight sets victory.
Into round two and Roger is guaranteed to be facing a Spaniard; either Fiasco or Garcia Lopez. I think Garcia-Lopez will be the one to make it as he plays well on faster courts and is in a decent run of form winning the Zagreb Indoors a few weeks ago. Verdasco is of course an enigma and will perhaps be looking to put in a shift considering he’s playing Dubai for the first time since 2008. He usually plays the South American clay court events so I’m not sure what’s made him change.
The Quarters is seeded to be against Bautista-Agut who we know doesn’t have the firepower to really do much damage when Fed is playing at a solid level. There’s also a chance of a Seppi rematch from the Australian Open which would be an interesting one. I’d back Fed to restore parity should they meet.
Should Roger be still in the tournament come Saturday then his semi final seeded opposition is Murray. Murray should play well on this surface and he made the final in 2012 losing to Federer in straight sets but there are question marks over his form. After playing a great Australian Open final (barring the final) he fell to Simon in Rotterdam last week very tamely. Hard to say whether he performs here and Gilles Muller won’t be a pushover in the first round as he is in good form.
As for the final then Djokovic looks likely to be the man standing at the other side of the net, his draw isn’t overly tough and his stiffest test will probably be Berdych. Pospisil could post an early threat but will probably be too inconsistent to get the job done so it’s all setup for a Djokerer final should things go to plan 🙂
No real predictions from me but I reckon Fed makes the semi finals quite comfortably and then we’ll go from there. Hopefully doubles doesn’t effect his recovery time for singles matches but I’m pretty sure he will lose early in that anyway.
What do you guys think?
First?
Nice 🙂
2nd? 😀
A third is good enough!
Sure draw looks okay, Roger should make it finals to get back on track… And I hope he defends title too…
On separate note, his goal emoji on Twitter is brilliant, isn’t it?
#Goat emoji
Only saw it briefly. I wondered if he had been on some special shisha or something 😆
Excellent, sensible draw analysis as usual, thanks for the prompt post. Interesting news of him playing doubles with Michi not Marc, wonder what’s the story behind? Saw the photo of DC team mates together in Dubai except Stan…
Hope for a Djokerer final. Allez!
I would like a Seppi rematch, because Federer always inflicts revenge on opponents that win fluke matches against him! A Murray semi should be very good, can’t wait for Fed to serve the Scot another delicious Swiss bagel. Jokes aside, it will be very interesting, particularly the scoreline, how Murray matches up against Federer after that destruction at the WTF. Murray looked back to his best physically in AO and I’m sure he can produce some good form again this tournament. Not wanting to jinx Fed now, but I think Murray could very well beat Rog in straight sets. Don’t be surprised if it happens, although chances are, Fed will increase the winning streak against Murray again.
Just my predictions, don’t hate me forever if they become true! 🙂
OK, Murray got to AO final, but the draw opened up for him and I felt he got a bit lucky. I watched a bit of that match against Simon and there was nothing in that match to suggest that there was any real improvement in Murray. He still 2 metres behind the baseline, and still playing the ‘waiting for mistakes’ game which suits Simon’s grinding game. If they should meet, I would say Dubai’s faster court suits Federer more than Murray.
Please no Seppi rematch. 🙂
Every time Fed beats Seppi in a tournament he doesn’t win it. -_-
2015 Australian Open
Australia Hard R32 Seppi, Andreas
6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(5)
2013 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Shanghai
Shanghai, China Hard R32 Federer, Roger
6-4, 6-3
2012 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome
Italy Clay Q Federer, Roger
6-1, 6-2
2012 Doha
Qatar Hard Q Federer, Roger
6-3, 5-7, 6-4
2010 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Shanghai
China Hard R16 Federer, Roger
6-3, 6-4
2009 Basel
Switzerland Hard R16 Federer, Roger
6-3, 6-3
2009 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte Carlo
Monaco Clay R32 Federer, Roger
6-4, 6-4
2009 Australian Open
Australia Hard R128 Federer, Roger
6-1, 7-6(4), 7-5
2009 Doha
Qatar Hard R16 Federer, Roger
6-3, 6-3
2008 ATP Masters Series Hamburg
Germany Clay S Federer, Roger
6-3, 6-1
2007 ATP Masters Series Monte Carlo
Monaco Clay R32 Federer, Roger
7-6(4), 7-6(6)
Murray’s loss to Simon was an anomaly, can’t really say Murray’s style suits Simon’s game, he lost to him 12 times in a row until the win in Rotterdam.
@Leon – that’s a cool stat, just tweeted it now.
Doubles is just helping the tournament out with extra revenue and appeal. Fed is helping Lammer’s pension fund.
Not normally of course…but then he usually out-grinds Simon, and he’s a better returner. Didn’t work in that last match though, he allowed Simon to settle into a nice rhythm.
I thought Marco was still recovering from ?elbow surgery? Thought he wasn’t due back until the DC first round, although I may have misunderstood that.
Excellent analysis again Jonathan. I guess the doubles is so he can get some match practice after a long break. I’m just so much looking forward to seeing him back on the courts and hoping of course for him to retain his title.
I think it’s more about helping the tournament. Not a coincidence him and Djoker are both playing.
Does it *need* help? It’s got 3 out of the top 4 playing.
It has already won consecutive Best ATP 500 tournament awards! Plus, the stands are never empty!
Kaizen.
I think it could have something to do with helping out the David Cup team without actually playing the tie…
Noticed there are a lot of “qualifiers” in the draw. Pospisil always gets lousy draws.
Looking at Fed’s outfit last year…so nice with the red.
Hope he defends the title, hard to predict how things will go before the tournament starts.
Pospisil not really improved much it seems from 1 / 2 years ago, doesn’t look to be so good on big points from what I seen.
Pospisil has been dealing with back injury…disc issues for a while. I do like to watch his game and I do agree…could be more clutch on the big points. He lives in Vancouver so like to rout for him.
Pretty decent draw for Roger here. Needs momentum after the tough loss in Melbourne to see him through in Indian Wells. Hard to see past him or Novak winning here, correct me if I’m wrong but Roddick seems to be the only one who has broken past the Djokerer stronghold on Dubai the past 7-8 years? Djoker coming off a slam will be incredibly confident, would be nice to have another match between the two. Either way, I want to see the same form we saw in Brisbane, had a well deserved break, time to get back to business.
Also Fed seems pretty excited that the Chinese New Year brings in the year of the GOAT…fingers crossed.
Hey, have you changed something in the comment section again Jonathan? I now don’t need to keep punching in my Name and Email every time I reopen the blog. It’s a nice little change having the page remember the input (or is that a change from my browser’s end?)
Either way, it’s the little things that count. Might save me 10 odd seconds. Help me get an edge in the leader board race. (ok, current result not withstanding)
That is controlled by the browser not my blog. Why not login with your live chat details then you can comment without inputting any details, it’s just a comment box.
It seems to be inputted permanently now. I like!
I think I mis spelled my own name (username) when signing up for Live Chat (please don’t start- I have no idea how I managed to do that. No, it has never happened before. No, it shall never happen again… I hope), so it’s a pain trying to find the right ‘wrong username’ to go with one of my many passwords.
You have 2 logins, one was for author (spelt wrong, probably by me) the other just general.
Your general username is Gaurav Sood
Just reset your password via login page.
Nadal out of Rio. Fognini outdid himself and shrug off his mental midget tagto come back from a set and a break down to beat Nadal 7-5 in the third.
Although of course, if Nadal was in perfect condition he would have never ever ever lost the match. Bad scheduling (which of course didn’t affect his opponent across the net), the umpire kept calling him out for violating some funny time rule that about 1000 other tennis players adhere to (which is still seemingly there with the sole purpose of singling Nadal out and being the bane of his existence). And then of course, there was injury. His groin was cramping. Funny that it flared up on match point. Disappeared the moment he saved it. Good ol’ Nadull- can’t take a loss without a bout of whining, complaints and a nice smattering of injuries thrown in just in case.
Hahaha….very well put Gaurav. Can hardly believe the Fog pulled it off! As you say, usual whining from the Spanish cheater – nothing less is expected. Got to think Daviid will get the trophy as Fognini surely won’t have anything left. Nadal down to No4 now, overtaken by the Scottish grimacer – another plus point!
Fog’s record vs Ferrer is poor but maybe he has a shot if he can focus. He’s definitely a very good mover on clay and if he can play more offensive I think he can do some damage.
Maybe Rafa needs to fire Aunt Toni. Wouldn’t that be interesting.
There is a change in Nadal. I don’t think he will be as consistent on clay or any surface anymore.
Oh, come on Gaurav, Rafa is injured. That is the only way he can loose.
That’s what I said Sue. Word to word :p
Who would he bring in? Carlos Moya? 😆
Marco still in rehab from elbow hence Lammer. Doubles draw almost more fun than singles but reckon Fed out first round as tough oppo. Singles? Hv slightly gone back to one match at a time mode. We always said 2015 Wld be tough after such a great 2014…. That said, agree with Jonathan that SF very makeable.
Still grinning from fabulous Fabios win last night. Rafa lost it with Carlos saying he never wanted him as umpire again apparently! Match point get one of best I hv seen. Ferrer shld win final but Fognini really focused atm…
I didn’t see the match – wish I had now as I love to see the cheater lose. Did Rafa really say that to Carlos Bernades? Sore loser or what. Pfff…it’s good to see the umpires showing some balls against Nadal at last. Funnily enough the last time Carlos umpired when the Fog was playing, they had a major argument after the match (which he lost, and shouldn’t have). Fognini’s temper as usual of course, but what a laugh!
Always one match at a time, Fed’s form is unknown with 3 / 4 weeks off.
Happy Fog won, his get was insane on MP.
You will find clips and vines of Nadal having a go at Bernardes on Twitter.
Decent draw but tough ask for him to retain title with Djoker waiting in the final. His match against Murray will be interesting if both reaches semis. Hmm playing dubs to help with the tourney or Lammer’s pension fund? Either way lets hope it doesn’t hurt him too much.
Will prob lose first round, up against a decent pairing.
Always a strong field in Dubai, hope it gets him into match fitness quickly. Looks like his first match is tomorrow Monday eve Dubai time. Doubles I suppose the next day. Some good comments in his pre-tournament press conf on the atp site.
Glad you said that, no way I expected him in action on Monday so I might not even have looked!
lol, thought I saw you mention somewhere you weren’t expecting to see him till Tuesday, thought I ought to say something!
By the bye most recent post is once again not showing on loading site – I would have missed April’s guest post altogether but I used Katyani’s trick of checking your tweets at the bottom of the page. Don’t know if there’s anything you can do about it from your end; puzzling.
Weird. I’ve made some more changes to expiries and garbage collection, it’s definitely to do with caching which I implement for page load times. If you are logged in for live chat it won’t cache pages so you would see all updates then. See if the changes I made make much difference.
Most recent one showed up on reload. See if it sticks…
Hello Guys I have not been here for a while I have a lot to catch up. Hoping Roger defends his title.
Yes! I’ve had a quick look at a brief highlight. It was pretty good from Roger for the first match 🙂 and Mikhail did very well as well. One down four to go.
Allez Roger!