Great Britain’s Sir Andy Murray overcame Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in straight sets today win the Dubai Tennis Championships title for the first time.
The top seed served out to love to wrap up a 6-3, 6-2 win in one hour and 14 minutes at the Aviation Club Tennis Center.
Victory in the ATP 500 event secures Murray his first tournament win of the year and 45th of his career and strengthens his hold on the world number one ranking over Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.
“I’m obviously very happy to do it here for the first time,” said the Scot, who extends his superior head-to-head record against Verdasco to 13-1.
Murray struggled in the early stages of the final, losing his first two service games which included four double faults.
But he managed to draw level at 3-3 before coming from 40-0 down to break Verdasco’s serve in game eight and then serving out the set.
An early break in the second set put Murray into a 2-1 lead and after breaking again at 4-2, a perfect service game sealed the triumph.
Murray lost to Djokovic in his first final of the year in Doha in January and then suffered a fourth-round exit at the Australian Open.
He now heads to the United States, where the Indian Wells Masters are due to get underway next week.
Djokovic, who was beaten by Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in the Mexican Open quarter-finals earlier this week, is the defending champion at Indian Wells.
By Daniel Etchells
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.