DUBAI, March 1: Jiri Novak reached the final of the Dubai Open at his seventh attempt on Saturday, beating unseeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-4 6-1.

He will face either top seed Roger Federer or unseeded Ivan Ljubicic in the final.

The third-seeded Czech, who also reached the semi-finals in 1997 and 2002, was able to cope better with the windy conditions on court.

“It was just a fight today. It wasn’t tennis,” said Novak.

“What can you do? Everything was the same for both of us, and you just have to play with your head, mentally, because you cannot show your tennis. You just have to keep your concentration.

“Our preference is to play from the baseline, and it’s very difficult to play in conditions like this.

“But anyway I won and I’m in the final for the first time. I’m very pleased about it.”

The 66-minute match consisted almost entirely of long baseline rallies and it was when the players came into the net that most of the errors occurred.

Novak broke twice in the first set, only for Robredo to level, for 2-2 and 4-4, but the Czech earned a third break to lead 5-4 when the ball clipped the net cord and fell on Robredo’s side of the net.

In the second set Novak immediately broke for 1-0, held off two break points in the next game, and then swept the last four games against an increasingly frustrated opponent.

Results of semi-final matches at the $1,000,000 Dubai Open ATP tournament on Saturday (prefix number denotes seeding, denotes new result): Jiri Novak bt Tommy Robredo 6-4 6-1, Roger Federer bt Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 6-2.—Reuters —Reuters