Intro:

Roger Federer will meet Tomas Berdych in the final of the Dubai Championships after he beating reigning champion Novak Djokovic 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the semi-finals on Friday (28 February).

Script:

Novak Djokovic was hoping to defend his crown at the Dubai Championships, but Roger Federer had other ideas as the two met in the semi-finals.

The Swiss was looking to win his sixth Dubai title.

Djokovic started the match well as he established an early lead and broke Federer in an error-filled second game.

In fact, the world number two made light weight of the first set, hitting ten winners as he closed it out in 35 minutes.

The Serb then ran out to a 2-0 lead and looked to be cruising to a simple victory when rain began to fall.

Those few dops were enough to help Federer re-gain his concentration.

He broke Djokovic to lead 4-2 and the fourth seed never looked back closing out the set 6-3 to level the match.

The top seed failed to find his rhythm in the third and final set with Federer breaking in the first game.

With the Swiss serving for the match, he saved two break points before closing it and progressing to the final with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win.

The 26 year old Djokovic will now have to wait a little longer to win his first ATP World Tour title of the season.

In the other semi-final Tomas Berdych was up against Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.

The Czech player was looking to reach his second consecutive Dubai Championships final.

And he produced a fantastic comeback from 5-3 down to win the first set 7-5.

He closed out the second set and the match to win 7-5, 7-5 and can now look forward to a final against Roger Federer.

In previous meetings between the two, the Swiss has the advantage leading 11-6 over Berdych.