HEAD racquet rebel Djokovic backs up Australian Open title with Dubai hat-trick

Novak Djokovic completed the first trophy hat-trick of his career with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Roger Federer to claim a third straight title at the Dubai Championships. The Serb who plays with the new YouTek IG Speed MP, a recent addition to his lethal shot making armoury, won his second straight match over the Swiss following victory in their Melbourne semi-final. The World No. 3 lifted his record against Federer to 8-13 in the 71-minute contest at the Aviation club. "I had to play unbelievably well," said the racquet rebel. "This was by far my best match of the week, I was on top of my game, it was the perfect match. I had a good preparation and have been working hard on my serve. Six months ago it was not like this."

Djokovic shined on serve missing just three first serves in the opening set and ending with 82 percent of first serves. The Serb has now won 15 straight matches in the Gulf emirate and is riding a career-best 14-match winning streak heading into the first Masters 1000 of the season from March 9 at Indian Wells, California.

“It's really important to know for me that I can perform this well. I feel physically well, fit, mentally motivated to do even more coming up to Indian Wells and Miami where I haven't done well in the last years. Any time I win against Roger it's a great success.”

“I rose to the occasion. I was serving really well, especially the first set, holding my serve except that one game when I got broken, confidently through throughout the whole match. Just the perfect performance overall”, the Serb added.

In total it was a very successful tournament for HEAD with six Racquet rebels playing in the quarter finals. Three out of four players in the semi final were using HEAD racquets.

There was more HEAD success on the Dubai doubles court, with three of the four finalists playing with HEAD racquets. Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny won their second Dubai team title as they beat Frenchman Jeremy Chardy and Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 6-3, 10-3.

"We began a bit slowly, but after we started playing better”, said Youzhny. “In the final tiebreaker we played really good and were much better focused.” And he added "doubles actually helps me to show good level in the singles. Sometimes after the doubles I feel sore on return and volleys. You understand if you feel like this in doubles, you will feel the same in singles - doubles helps in singles as well.”