January 8, 2005: Roger Federer conquers first Doha title in dominant style
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Competing in Doha for the first time since 2002, Federer stormed over all five rivals, wrapping up the title in just five hours after a dominant performance on both serve and return that left his opponents powerless on the other side of the court.
David Ferrer fell 6-1, 6-1 in the opening round and Roger needed just over an hour to dismiss Greg Rusedski 6-3, 6-4, fending off both break points and stealing the Britons serve once in each set to bring the win home in no time at all.
The Swiss continued his strong run against Feliciano Lopez, ousting the Spaniard 6-1, 6-2 in just 51 minutes after a brilliant performance on both serve and return to reach the last four where he overpowered Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 6-4 with a single break in each set.
Davydenko served at 85% but that wasnt enough for a more positive result, creating just one break point and not being able to match Rogers performance. In the title match, Roger thumps Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-1 in 63 minutes for his first Doha crown, completing a perfect week and heading towards Australia where he was a clear favorite to defend the Australian Open crown.
The Croat created three break points, more than any other player that week against Federer, but he stayed empty-handed after wasting them all. On the other hand, the Swiss had the upper hand in the return games, stealing half of the points behind Ivans serve and converting four out of nine break points to stay ahead all the time.
Federer was miles in front in the shortest and mid-range rallies, hitting twice as many winners than his opponent and taming his groundstrokes perfectly to forge his triumph and open the season in the strongest possible way.
Roger held at love in the opening game and he earned two break points already in game two, squandering both and missing a chance for an early lead. The Swiss drew first blood in the sixth game after a backhand error from Ljubicic who had a huge chance to pull the break back in the very next game, with three break points up for grabs.
Roger stayed calm, erasing them all and closing the set with service winners at 5-3. Ivan suffered a break at the start of the second set after a double fault and that sealed his fate in this match, getting broken again in game five when Federer placed a forehand winner that pushed him 4-1 up.
The Swiss won the sixth game with a volley winner and he cemented his triumph with another break in the fame that followed, hammering a forehand winner to cross the finish line and celebrate the title.
