Roger Federer took home the fifth Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title of his career, downing Andy Murray 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday. The two stars put on a show for a packed audience. In the first set, Federer went down 4-2 when Murray broke serve. Federer clawed his way back to level the set at 5-5, before taking his serve and the set back from Murray. During the second set, Murray hit a backhand into the net to give Federer a break point and the serve for the match at 5-4.
"The match was close I think in both sets," said Federer. "I just gave myself more opportunities than Andy did overall. I felt really good out there tonight. I felt calm knowing what I wanted to do. I think the surface, I used it to my advantage, which in the last year's finals I couldn't or didn't. I think that was a big thing tonight as well."
Despite the loss, Murray did very well for himself during the tournament, upsetting world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals to somewhat avenge his loss to the Serb at the 2012 Australian Open. Despite recording arguably the biggest win of the tournament, the crowd was firmly behind Federer for the Dubai final.
"I think in the second set he played better than me," said Murray. "For sure I made a few too many mistakes in the second, and he was playing a lot more aggressive than in the first set. It was a good win yesterday, good win the day before, tough match today, so I'm happy with the week.
"The atmosphere was fantastic. I think most of the crowd wanted Roger to win but it's not often you get the chance to play in a packed stadium."
Check out the rest of our StoryStream for more results from the tournament. Be sure to stay tuned for SB Nation's tennis hub for more news.