Djokovic Kicks Off Dubai Against Vasek Pospisil

Novak Djokovic is a four-time winner of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and will be looking to get his hands on the title again this year. He starts his campaign with a match against British Columbia-born youngster Vasek Pospisil who is yet to collect an ATP championship title.

Djokovic claimed this tournament in consecutive years from 2009 to 2011 before losing out in the semi-final of the 2012 competition. He reclaimed the honours in 2013 with a victory over Tomas Berdych in straight sets (7-5, 6-3) before only managing to reach the semi-final again in 2014. He would lose out to the eventual winner Roger Federer.

This is Pospisil`s first entry into the Dubai Duty Free.

The two men have met each other in ATP tournaments on two previous occasions with the Serbian holding a 2-0 record over the 24-year-old. They first met in a Canada vs. Serbia round robin match on clay in 2013, Djokovic recording a 6-2, 6-0, 6-4 victory before clashing in Beijing on hard a year later. This scoreline read 6-3, 7-5 to the world number one.

As a result Djokovic, who is 10/11 with betfred to earn himself his fifth Dubai Duty Free title this year, is 1/20 (bet365, william hill) to progress through to round two. A third consecutive straight sets victory for the Serb can be picked up at the best price of 2/9 with paddy Power.

A trio of bookmakers (32red, 888sport, unibet) have all got the outsider priced up at 13/1 to secure the win tomorrow afternoon (15:00) and record his first victory over the 6`2" number one seed.

The last time the two men met was in the second round of the 2014 renewal of the China Open, Djokovic carving out a five game margin of victory. paddy Power are offering odds of 1/3 on one of these two players winning by a margin of between five and nine games tomorrow whilst punters can also back one of these players to win by five, six or seven games at a price of 8/11. In Serbia in 2013, Djokovic claimed a 12 game victory, though this would only be repeated if the favourite can record two 6-0 set wins. paddy power`s 14/1 says that one of the two players will be able to win by a difference of 10 or more games.

Of course, Djokovic did seal one set by a bagel victory in Serbia and hit three in the whole of the Australian Open this year. At the time of writing, none of the major bookmakers are offering odds on whether or not there will be a 6-0 set recorded in the match though it might be worth looking out for such a price. In this regard, the target for Pospisil will be holding his own serve with his opponent having won 91% of the 150 service games he has played in 2015.

The 49-time ATP tournament winner was last seen winning his 10th Grand Slam down under, his only previous competition outing in 2015 ending disappointingly as he exited the Doha Open in the quarter-finals at the hands of Ivo Karlovic. He lost that encounter despite winning the first set on a tie-break and his 6`4" rival is 40/1 with william hill to similarly knock him out after losing out in the opening exchanges.

The 63rd rank has done this, won a match following a first set defeat, twice this year, initially in the opening round of the Australian Open against Italy`s Paolo Lorenzi before seeing off Robin Haase in the first round of the Open 13 in France.

Andy Murray is the only top 10 ranked player the Barbados resident has faced this year. He lost this encounter against the Brit 6-3, 7-5.

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23/02/2015     © Frixo 2024