As soon as the draw came out for the first ATP World Tour tournament in 2017, the tennis world was hoping for a final between the two best players in the world.<\/p>\n
Nole and Andy engaged in battle for the 36th time in their careers. The Serb has dominated their rivalry with\u00a0a commanding 25-11 lead in their overall meetings, and he also leads 20-8 on hard courts. It was the 19th time that the duo met in finals with Nole\u00a0now leading 11-8.<\/p>\n
Novak\u2019s giant serve saved a break point he faced in the third game of the match. The 29-year-old Serb broke the top-seeded Scot to go 5-3 up and then closed the opening set with a fiery cross court shot.<\/p>\n
Djokovic also went up a break in the second set when Murray double-faulted on a break point in the seventh game. The defending champion earned three match points in the 10th game, but failed to convert any of them. The Dunblane native survived scare and broke twice to level the match and force the third set.<\/p>\n
Novak recovered his composure in the decider and looked more focused. He broke to love in the seventh game and served it out three games later for his first title in 2017 and 67th career trophy. The match lasted two hours and 54 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely one of the best ways to start a year. When he turned it around, I thought I hope this is not payback time for yesterday,\u201d<\/strong> Djokovic said. \u201cAll the way, to the last shot, you never know with Andy. It\u2019s no strange occurrence for both of us to play three sets for three hours. It\u2019s a very physical battle. We\u2019re both going to need a little time to recover. To win here, against the biggest rival, is a dream start.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nMatch statistics<\/u>: aces (2-8), double faults (3-4), total points won (102-92).<\/p>\n
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