Dubai, UAE  - Novak Djokovic overcame a patchy effort littered with breaks of serve before lifting his first title of 2009 with a 7-5, 6-3 win over David Ferrer at the Barclays Championships on Saturday.

The Serb world number 3 improved to 4-3 against Spain's scampering Ferrer, the second finalist from his nation in as many years at the Aviation club after Feliciano Lopez lost in 2008 to Andy Roddick.

The match was a preview of next weekend's Davis Cup World Group tie in Spain.

It's hard to imagine Sania Mirza as the 'mamma's girl' she claims to be. In public, she is diva-like, cocky and brash, with her devil-may-care attitude sometimes putting-off. So, when she reminisces about the time when her mother forced her to gulp down four glasses of milk a day, one can barely suppress a snicker.

"I think drinking four glasses a day was a bit too much but my mom asked me to and I was an obedient girl," Sania said during a promotional event in the city on Friday. Now we know where the power of her forehand comes from.

Dubai  - Top seed Novak Djokovic will struggle for supremacy as he takes a 3-3 record into his Saturday Barclays Championships final against on-fire Spaniard David Ferrer.

Djokovic rallied in the third set to storm to his first final of the season 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 over Gilles Simon.

Ferrer crushed another Frenchman on the day, hammering Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-2 and finally moving into a tittle match after already coming up short twice this season in Adelaide and Johannesburg.

Upsets top seed Rohan Gide, tops it upwith doubles title

It’s not the age, but the skill and endurance matters in the game of tennis, and none other than former Davis Cupper Nitin Kirtane will be the perfect example for this. Nitin, who will turn 35, on March 4 this year, has validated the point that he has lot more tennis left in him as he entered the single’s final followed by title in the doubles along with his cousin Sandeep in the DES Trophy All India Ranking Men’s Tennis Tournament at Fergusson College here on Thursday.

In the singles semi-final, top seed Rohan Gide from Pune struggled against Nitin’s aggression with a combination of backhand slices and forehand strokes and he went down tamely 4-6 3-6 in straight sets.

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.