DUBAI — Roger Federer scored the 84th title win of his career, kept his nose in front in his personal rivalry with Novak Djokovic, and equalled his best achievement at any tournament by winning the Dubai Open for the seventh time. The Grand Slam record-holder from Switzerland beat the world No. 1 from Serbia 6-4, 7-5 in a colorful success which took Federer's title haul here equal to those of Halle and Wimbledon. It also put him 20-17 up against Djokovic. Federer served superbly, his 12 aces taking his career total past 9,000, something only three other players have done since 1991. He was also creative, forthright, and sometimes risk-taking in the frequency with which he attacked the net. It required only one break of serve in the first set, in the eighth game, to give Federer the thrust he needed to close out the first set. And one break was enough in the second, coming in the eleventh game. Safarova wins Qatar Lucie Safarova beat Victoria Azarenka in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3 to clinch the Qatar Open Saturday. It was her sixth career title and first since Qubec City in 2013. “It's an amazing feeling. I'm so happy to win the title. It's been a long time. I'm happy at the way season has progressed,” said Safarova. Nadal in semis Rafael Nadal cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Federico Delbonis Friday, advancing to the semifinals of the Argentina Open. The top-seeded Spaniard needed just over an hour to defeat the 59th-ranked Argentine at the clay-court tournament in Buenos Aires. Nadal will next face another local in Carlos Berlocq, who beat Blaz Rola of Slovenia 6-1, 6-3. In the other semifinal, Nicolas Almagro of Spain will play Juan Monaco of Argentina. Almagro upset second-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-3, 6-2, while Monaco beat third-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 7-6 (1), 6-7 (4), 6-4. Sharapova withdraws A stomach virus caused world No. 2 Maria Sharapova to pull out of the Acapulco International semifinal in Mexico just hours before her semifinal Friday. Sharapova was due to meet Caroline Garcia of France. Garcia will face fifth-seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland in the hard-court final. Bacsinszky beat Sesil Karatantcheva 6-2, 6-4. In the men's semifinals, top-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan beat fourth-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, and second-seeded David Ferrer of Spain topped Ryan Harrison of the United States 4-6, 6-0, 6-0. — Agencies
