Dubai, UAE - Novak Djokovic moved to within a match of his first season title as the Serb stormed into a third final of the season 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 over Gilles Simon at the Barclays Championships on Friday.

The top seed will face off against the winner from unseeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet and Spaniard David Ferrer, the fourth seed who has struck a seam of form this week in the desert.

Djokovic, the 2008 Australian Open champion, has improved his career showing at Dubai by one round in each of his three appearances, staring with a 2007 quarter-final and a semi-final defeat last year against Roger Federer.

Dubai, UAE - Andy Murray was heading home to London on Friday for urgent rest and recuperation after pulling out before his Barclays Championships quarter-final on Thursday with a virus that he's carried for a month or more.

The Scottish second seed said that he has felt poorly since playing in January's Australian Open, with a brief respite a fortnight ago when he won the Rotterdam title over Rafael Nadal.

Dubai, UAE - Gilles Simon ushered Fabrice Santoro out of the Barclays Championships for the final time on Thursday with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 quarter-final victory.

The popular Santoro, 36, is hanging up his racket next November at Paris Bercy, and has played his concluding match in the emirate where he began with the event 17 years ago as a runner-up.

Dubai, Feb 26 : Pakistan skipper Younus Khan has jumped six places to overtake S. Chanderpaul at the top of the ICC Test Player Rankings.

A triple-century from Pakistan's new captain Younus Khan has earned him six places and put him on top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen for the first time in his career.

The second seeded Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles handed a straight-set mauling to UAE’s Hamoud Abbas and Mahmoud-Naden Al Baloushi.

With this win, the Indo-Bahamian pair has now advanced into the quarter-finals of the Dubai Tennis Championship.

The Bhupathi & Knowles pair were at ease throughout the match and hardly had any trouble to overpower their rivals 6-3, 6-1 in the $2,233,500 event. This was the 50th win for this Indo-Bahamian pair.

Dubai, UAE  - Novak Djokovic survived a fright to join Andy Murry with a win into the quarter-finals of the Barclays Championships on Wednesday as he overcame determined Czech Jan Hernych 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

The challenger, who won just four matches on the ATP last season, gave the top seed a battle before Djokovic pulled through.

"He put up a great fight and had nothing to lose. You can't always perform at your best but it's important to stay focussed. I was able to do that tonight," said the winner.