Points won by each set: [ 40-32, 34-39, 39-31 ]
Points won directly on serve:
16 % Djokovic – 18 of 107
18 % Youzhny – 20 of 108
A two-day final, one of the longest “best of three” ATP finals in history. Heavy rain fell as Djokovic [2] led (40/15) on serve in the 2nd set. The players came back on court, but the rain came back too when the Serb broke for a 2:0 (30/15) lead, and the match was postponed (after 78 minutes) to the following day. The umpire Mohamad Lahyani was replaced by Cedric Mourier, the packed crowd during night session was replaced by a bunch of fans in day session. Youzhny [15] trailed *0:3, but broke back and saved a mini-match point at 3:4. The Russian failed to serve the set out at 5:4, but collected the last eight points of the set anyway. Despite just nine games, the 3rd set lasted over an hour which in the end contributed to 3 hours 12 minutes of play which is the record as far as the Arabian finals are concerned. They needed to exchange baseline shots in almost every point, Youzhny came back from *0:3 (0/30) again, but having a double break point at 3-all he missed by a few centimetres two similar cross-court forehands. Djokovic celebrated the triumph on his knees; he needed deciders in four consecutive matches, but he was never in serious troubles of upcoming defeat, the closest vs Ljubicic – seven points away at 4-all (40/30) on serve in the 2nd set having also saved two break points at 3-all. “I was thinking about people who bought tickets and wanted to stay a bit longer, and I really don’t know what’s going on,” Djokovic said about the lost advantage in the mid-set, “Today I was really nervous before the match, during the match for no reason. You could see my frustrations.” It would be really amazing if Youzhny won that match in three sets because he had already defeated Djokovic twice in dramatic deciders (Marseille & Rotterdam ’07).
Djokovic’s route to his 17th title:
1 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 6-4
2 Viktor Troicki 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
Q Ivan Ljubicic 2-6, 6-4, 6-0
S Marcos Baghdatis 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4
W Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 5-7, 6-3