Report:
Murray’s lead over Djokovic at the top of the rankings is now 2,215 points. He’s also the first Briton to win in Dubai. Perhaps just a shame that the final was a bit of a mismatch.
Anyway, we’re going to wrap this blog up now. Thanks for reading, and well done to Sir Andy. Bye now!
That’s Andy Murray’s first title of the year, and his first ever in Dubai. And who’d bet against him winning in Indian Wells or Miami?
Well, that was as straightforward as it gets. Murray started really badly, and his serve was all over the place, but Verdasco just never got going. He led 3-1 in the first set, but then just stopped playing, and once Murray had taken that first set, Verdasco seemed to give up. The second set was a procession.
Here’s Murray:
“I played a good match today.
“It’s been quite a few late finishes this week and the last couple of matches I didn’t start as well as I’d like. The conditions have been a difficult with some stopping and starting.But once I got going I was moving well and I finished strong.”
The ATP Tour moves to USA next week, for tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami.
“[A] sixteen-hour flight to LA, and it’ll take a few days to get over there. I struggled in Indian Wells and Miami last year, and hopefully I can well play there.”
Andy Murray wins the Dubai Open title!
Second set: Murray 6-3 6-2 Verdasco
Verdasco has just been so sloppy. No intensity! Maybe it’s nerves, but it’s been really poor from such an experienced player. Murray goes ahead 40-0, and has three championship points, and he takes the first of them!
Andy Murray wins the Dubai Tennis Championships!
Murray breaks in the seventh game of the second set!
Second set: *Murray 6-3 5-2 Verdasco (*denotes next server)
Brilliant stuff from Murray at 30-15: great defence, and then a confident put-away. 30-30. And now that’s a huge error from Verdasco: a missed smash, and Murray has break point for a 5-2 lead. He can’t take it. Deuce.
Advantage Murray, and another break point, but Verdasco saves it with a 132mph ace! Second deuce. But it merely delays the inevitable: Murray clinches another break, and he’ll serve for the title!
Second set: Murray 6-3 4-2 Verdasco* (*denotes next server)
Verdasco goes ahead 0-15, and has a chance to finish a long rally and make it 0-30 – but he can’t take it. Too tentative on the forehand, and Murray wins the point to draw level at 15-15, which soon becomes 30-15, and 40-15, and now that’s the game. 4-2 Murray, and Verdasco faces another must-win game.
Updated
Second set: *Murray 6-3 3-2 Verdasco (*denotes next server)
An extremely important hold from Verdasco, who looked wobbly at 15-30, but reeled off three straight points, finishing with a convincing overhead smash. He’s still in this match – just.
Second set: Murray 6-3 3-1 Verdasco* (*denotes next server)
Verdasco’s been like the little girl with the curl: when he’s been bad, he’s been horrid. Another service game to love for Murray, and he’s running away with this match.
Murray breaks in the third game of the second set!
Second set: *Murray 6-3 2-1 Verdasco (*denotes next server)
Verdasco slips to 0-30, and his coaching team look thoroughly fed up. Murray misses a chance to go to 0-40 when his backhand is wide, but Verdasco tries a drop shot that Murray absolutely gobbles up. 15-40, and Murray has two more break points!
Verdasco saves the first one, but not the second! Murray hits a clear winner, and he leads 2-1 in the second set. He’s en route to victory.
Updated
Second set: Murray 6-3 1-1 Verdasco* (*denotes next server)
An easy hold to love from Murray, in part because of horrible drop shot from Verdasco at 40-0 that barely reached the net on his own side.
Second set: *Murray 6-3 0-1 Verdasco (*denotes next server)
Verdasco allows Murray to draw level at 30-30, but two excellent serves – aces, I think – give Verdasco a valuable hold, and that’s an important start in this second set. He needed to stop the Murray train, and he has done. For now, at least.
Such a peculiar opening set. Murray found barely any rhythm, and couldn’t get his serve working at all, but 38 minutes later he’s got one hand on the trophy. Three really poor games from Verdasco, and it’s tough to see a way back for the Spaniard now.
Murray wins the first set!
First set: Murray 6-3 Verdasco* (*denotes next server)
And that’s too easy. Another hold to love, Murray wins the first set, and Verdasco seems to have fallen apart.
Murray breaks in the eighth game of the first set!
First set: *Murray 5-3 Verdasco (*denotes next server)
Murray’s serve has been all wonky; Verdasco’s just hasn’t been very good. But this is better from the Spaniard, and he moves to 40-0 by standing tall and easing Murray around the court. But what looked like a straightforward service game isn’t proving the case, as Murray responds for 40-30, and then Verdasco misses an absolute gimme with Murray out of the picture! Deuce.
And Verdasco has fallen apart in this game! Advantage Murray, and now game Murray! Five straight points from Murray, and he’s broken again. That could be a fatal blow to Verdasco’s chances.
First set: Murray 4-3 Verdasco* (*denotes next server)
Murray’s really into his stride now, controlling the points from the back of the court. Great point from Murray after Verdasco slipped, and now he’s at 40-0: that’s nine points in a row from the world No1. A fourth double fault takes some of the shine of Murray’s mini-spurt, but no matter: that’s game Murray, and he leads for the first time in the match.
Murray breaks in the sixth game of the first set!
First set: *Murray 3-3 Verdasco (*denotes next server)
Verdasco slips to 0-30, and this is a chance to Murray. Now 0-40! Verdasco lost his first service game to love, and now he’s done it again! A lovely backhand winner from Murray, and we’re all square at 3-3.
OK, let’s play properly now. This is the real quiz.
First set: Murray 2-3 Verdasco* (*denotes next server)
You get the sense that when – if? – Murray gets his first serve working, he’ll have too much for Verdasco. But it’s sure not working at the moment, and Murray lets out an anguished yelp when he’s long from the baseline. 15-15. Murray goes ahead 40-15, but two poor points let Verdasco come back to deuce. Nine unforced errors already from the Scot.
Two quick points finish the game, and Murray finally manages to hold at the third attempt. Verdasco still has that break, though.
Simon McMahon writes: “Of course, when I said no drama, I didn’t actually mean no drama.”
Updated
First set: *Murray 1-3 Verdasco (*denotes next server)
Well, Verdasco has two breaks, but he’s lost six straight points on his own serve. Murray goes to 0-30. Nice inside-out winner from Verdasco for 15-30, and then Murray is long from the baseline. 30-30. Which becomes 40-30, with a fab two-handed backhand winner that was right on the line. Murray responds, and we’re at deuce.
Verdasco comes through to hold, and he’s 3-1 ahead. Murray has some work to do.
Verdasco breaks again!
First set: Murray 1-2 Verdasco* (*denotes next server)
Murray just can’t get his first serve in. But that’s a lovely, rangy forehand winner from the Scot, and he’s level at 15-15. But that’s a super riposte from Verdasco: a down-the-line passing shot for a clear winner. 15-30. And another double from Murray! 15-40. This is extraordinary. Two more break points for Verdasco, and Murray misses an easy winner, wide left! What a start we’ve had. Verdasco’s barely hit a winner, but he’s broken Murray again!
Murray breaks back immediately!
First set: *Murray 1-1 Verdasco (*denotes next server)
But this is an abject service game from Verdasco. Murray unfurls the first winner of the game for 0-15, and then Murray breaks back to love! Six minutes gone, and already we’ve had two breaks. Crazy!
Updated
Verdasco breaks in the opening game of the first set!
First set: Murray 0-1 Verdasco* (*denotes next server)
Erratic start for Murray: he just can’t get his first service in. 15-0 becomes 15-15 after a double fault, and then Verdasco has a sniff at 15-30 after Murray nets a regulation backhand. And another double! 15-40, and Verdasco has two break points in the opening game!
Better from Murray: that first serve is unreturnable. 30-40. But then he finds the net, and Verdasco is on the board with a break! What a shaky start from Murray.
Updated
Ali Nili from USA is our umpire. Murray won the toss and will serve first. Let’s play tennis!
Verdasco’s 33 now, and won’t be around forever, but he’s been extremely consistent on the tour: seven career titles, and he’s finished in the top 50 for the past 13 straight seasons. His route to the final took in victories over Seppi, Bautista Agut, Monfils and Robin Haase. Murray beat Jaziri, Garcia-Lopez, Kohlschreiber in that crazy tie-breaker, and Lucas Pouille in the last four.
We’ll be under way shortly. Murray is all in black; Verdasco is in white with salmon trim, and salmon sneakers. Both players wearing a white cap.
The players aren’t yet out on court, but they should be shortly. There’s been moisture in the air in Dubai, and the wind is swirling, which should favour Murray, since he doesn’t seem to be fazed by challenging conditions.
Here’s Simon McMahon: “Afternoon Tim. Murray in straight sets. No drama. He’s just [adopts best Dan Maskell voice] too good.”
Tony Fitzgerald wants some love for Andy’s bro: “Since you talking about Acapulco why not mention that Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares are in the doubles final against Isner and Lopez?”
Yep! They are. Murray and Soares finished 2016 as the top-ranked men’s doubles pair, incidentally. And in case you missed it, this is an excellent interview with Murray Sr from a couple of months back with Decca Aitkenhead:
Thomas Harrington is behind his fellow Briton: “Come on Andy, get the job finished. Done really well this week after essentially five weeks off. Not his best tennis at times, but for early March pretty solid stuff, and a good build-up to the big tests this year, which should be just the grand slams.”
Overnight, Rafa Nadal made it into the final in Acapulco, where he’ll play Sam Querrey. Here’s a short report from AP:
Rafael Nadal routed Croatia’s Marin Cilic 6-1, 6-2 on Friday night to advance to the Mexican Open final. Seeking his first title this season and 70th overall, the 30-year-old Spaniard ran his Mexican Open winning streak to 14 matches and 28 sets. He won the event in 2005 and 2013, when it was played on clay.
Nadal will face American Sam Querrey a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 winner over Australia’s Nick Kyrgios.
The second-seeded Nadal, playing his first tournament since losing to Roger Federer in the Australian Open final, last won a hardcourt title in January 2014 in Doha. “You need to have a great day to get a result like this against Cilic,” Nadal said. “Anytime you play against someone like Cilic you expect to suffer in a tight match, but it was not like that. I believe that he had his chances, but I played a good game.”
In the late game, Querrey continued an inspired week in which he has defeated Belgian David Goffin, Dominic Thiem and now Kyrgios, who defeated Novak Djokovic on Thursday. Querrey ended Thiem’s seven-match winning streak. “It does not get any easier tomorrow, it will be the toughest test,” Querrey said. “I played great today, but I need to play even better tomorrow to beat Nadal.”
The American will try to win his ninth title, and first since Delray Beach in 2016. Querrey is 0-4 against Nadal.
Updated
Murray really is in hot form right now: this is now his seventh final in his past eight tournaments. And he’s won 12 of his 13 all-time against Verdasco – that sole defeat coming in the round of 16 eight years ago in Melbourne.
Hello and welcome
Andy Murray’s been away for a while, but now he’s back, and into another final. The world No1 is playing his first tournament since his fourth-round exit at the Australian Open in January, and he faces Fernando Verdasco for the chance to win the Dubai Open. The world No1 has never won in Dubai – he lost to Roger Federer in his previous final appearance in 2012 – but he has an excellent chance to right that wrong today against the world No35.
Moreover, Murray can extend his lead at the top of the rankings with victory, after Novak Djokovic lost to Nick Kyrgios in Acapulco. But the Scot isn’t taking the 33-year-old Verdasco lightly. Verdasco, you may remember, beat him in the 2009 Australian Open.
“He’s had a pretty good start to the year. This week he’s had some good wins,” Murray said. “Where the balls are fairly heavy here on a quick court, he can generate a lot of power, he can control the ball.
“And when he’s dictating the points, he’s one of the best in the world at doing that.”
We’ll be getting under way in Dubai in half an hour or so.
Tim will be here shortly. In the meantime, read how Murray reached the final:
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