Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Federer dominant in Doha

World No 2 breezes past Davydenko in straight sets to take 67th title

Tennis Correspondent,Paul Newman
Sunday 09 January 2011 01:00 GMT
Comments

It is now 10 years since Roger Federer won his first senior tournament, but the world No 2 is showing no sign of losing his hunger for success. Federer won the 67th title of his career yesterday, beating Nikolay Davydenko 6-3 6-4 in the final of the Qatar Open. With the Australian Open only eight days away, the 29-year-old Swiss served notice that he has every intention of hanging on to the only Grand Slam crown not in the hands of his great rival Rafael Nadal.

Barely breaking sweat on a balmy evening in Doha, Federer broke serve once in each set to complete victory in just 79 minutes. He dropped a mere nine points on his own serve as Davydenko failed to build on his semi-final victory over Nadal, who had earlier joined forces with his fellow Spaniard Marc Lopez to beat the Italians Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi 6-3 7-6 in the doubles final.

Robin Soderling went into today's Brisbane International final against Andy Roddick knowing that victory would see him climb above Andy Murray into fourth place in tomorrow's updated world rankings list. Soderling, the top seed, beat Radek Stepanek 6-3 7-5 in the semi-finals, while Roddick, the defending champion, won his big-serving showdown with Kevin Anderson 6-2 4-6 6-2.

Soderling has been in top form in his first tournament of the year and had not dropped his serve once until Stepanek broke back to level the second set at 5-5. But the Swede hit back immediately and then served out to reach the 11th final of his career.

The Czech Petra Kvitova, who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year, beat Germany's Andrea Petkovic 6-1 6-3 to win the women's final in Brisbane and claim her second Tour title. Hungary's Greta Arn, the world No 88, also enjoyed her second title success as she beat Yanina Wickmayer 6-3 6-3 in the final of the Auckland Classic.

At the Hopman Cup in Perth, Justine Henin beat Bethanie Mattek- Sands 7-6 6-3. However, she was unable to prevent the United States winning the tournament as John Isner beat Ruben Bemelmans 6-3 6-4 and then teamed up with Mattek-Sands to beat the Belgians in the deciding mixed doubles 6-1 6-3.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in