DUBAI, February 27, 2016
Stan Wawrinka is the new champion of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The tournament’s second seed from Switzerland defeated Marcos Baghdatis in Saturday’s final 6-4, 7-6.
Wawrinka won 77% of his first service points, saved one of the two break points he faced and converted two of his own to finish the encounter after one hour and 54 minutes. Wawrinka hasn’t lost a final in three years and extended his winning streak in finals to 9-0.
By claiming his 13th ATP Tour title, the Swiss earned 500 Emirates ATP Rankings points and $511,750 in prize money. He has a 13-2 match record this season.
“It’s an amazing end to the week. It was a tough beginning (versus Sergiy Stakhovsky), but I was always trying to fight, always trying to improve day by day even if I wasn’t playing great at the beginning. I’m really happy to have another trophy. It’s amazing feeling, especially today when I was playing some really good tennis. It was a tough final against Marcos. We always play some tough match,” told Wawrinka.
“I think more matches throughout the year at this level would make me go in there and believe from the beginning that I can win, not wait three, four games and start believing. So I think that was the difference today. I could see a bit more experience from Stan playing, at this level, at these big tournaments,” Baghdatis said.
Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi claimed the doubles title, winning 6-2, 3-6, 14-12 over top-seeded Spaniards Feliciano and Marc López in one hour and 17 minutes.
“I’m very happy because a win is always is good, and Dubai is very good tournament, a big tournament. I think we played day by day better. Today, was very tight. The Match tie-break was unbelievable. We started 1/5 down. Then we saved match point, we had a match point. We tried to play aggressive. Then, I think we returned very well in the (Match) tie-break on the last points. It was a good win,” told Bolelli.
“It was a very good week for me. It’s good to win the title in doubles. It’s my first one. I lost six finals, so to finally win a doubles title is always something special, and especially with a good friend,” Seppi added.
Andreas Seppi and Simone Bolelli won the title in Dubai (photo: DDFT)
