Dubai R1 previews and picks: Federer vs. Youzhny, Gulbis vs. Istomin

Roger Federer will kick off his Dubai campaign against Mikhail Youzhny on Monday. Ernests Gulbis and Denis Istomin are also in first-round action.

Mikhail Youzhny vs. (2) Roger Federer

One veteran has already snapped a 10-match losing streak to Federer this season. An ever longer stretch of perfection will be on the line in round one of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Monday. Federer, who was previously 10-0 lifetime against Andreas Seppi before losing to the Italian at the Australian Open, is 15-0 at Youzhny’s expense. Six of the second-ranked Swiss’ head-to-head wins have come on hard courts, including four in Dubai. Federer is 8-0 against the Russian in sets at this event and no set has progressed to a tiebreaker. They most recently squared off in the 2013 Halle final, with Federer scraping through 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.

Youzhny has done nothing of late to suggest the tide will turn. He is 2-3 on the season with a pair of opening-round exits followed by a quarterfinal showing earlier this month in Zagreb (lost to Marcos Baghdatis). Federer is playing for the first time since his surprising Melbourne ouster. The 33-year-old obviously spends a ton of time in Dubai and his record there is indicative of his comfort level. Federer is 42-5 at the tournament with six titles. In other words, this is as bad as any draw can get for Youzhny.

Pick: Federer in 2 losing 5-7 games

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Denis Istomin vs. (5) Ernests Gulbis

Perhaps no player on tour is as streaky or mercurial as Gulbis, in that when he is on he can be truly on fire, but when he is off he is ice cold. Unfortunately for 13th-ranked Latvian, he has been nothing short of a disaster since reaching the French Open semifinals last Spring. Gulbis is winless this year, with losses to Jiri Vesely in Auckland, Thanasi Kokkinakis in Australia, Dominic Thiem in Rotterdam, and Jeremy Chardy in Marseille.

Up first in Dubai for the No. 5 seed is a third career date with Istomin. Both of their previous encounters have gone Gulbis’ way–6-3, 4-6, 6-3 on the clay courts of Nice in 2011 and 6-4, 7-6(4) last season in Rotterdam. Istomin is a horrendous 2-6 for his 2015 campaign, but he is a solid-ballstriker who should be able to capitalize on an out-of-form opponent simply by playing clean, consistent tennis.

Pick: Istomin in 2

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