Roger Federer [Images] beat Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 on Sunday to win his third consecutive Dubai Open title.

The Swiss world number one has now played 16 straight finals without defeat, stretching his own record.

Sunday's title showdown was a replay of the final the pair played in Rotterdam last week, which Federer won in a third-set tiebreak.

But in Dubai it looked as if the top seed would this time sweep to victory in under an hour as he dominated the opening set and sped to a 3-1 lead in the second before eighth seed Ljubicic began to offer any real competition.

"I really wanted to get off to a good start this time, and I did, and I could really play with confidence while he still looking for his rhythm," Federer said.

"That took me all the way through to 6-1, 3-1, 0-30 on his serve and I almost ran away with it. But he came back, and that was a good effort on his side."

The Croat levelled the second set at 4-4 and saved a match point at 6-5 in the tiebreak before eventually claiming it 8-6.

After an early exchange of breaks in the deciding set, Federer broke with a forehand winner to lead 5-3 and served out for victory.

Ljubicic, with 20 victories, had won more matches than any other player on the ATP Tour until Federer equalled his total in the final. And he looked as if he had hit the wall as he struggled to put his game together.

USUAL FIRE-POWER

The eighth seed failed to find his usual fire-power on his serve and made countless backhand errors, and Federer was not called upon to do anything out of the ordinary as he built a commanding lead.

It is a credit to the Croatian that he pushed the match to a third set and Federer said he had found it difficult to control his emotions after Ljubicic edged that tiebreak.

"It was just disappointing, after having match point and being up all the time, and he just catches you in the last bit and you have to go into extra time," said Federer.

"I think mentally it's quite an effort to stay quiet because the crowd's getting into it. In the end it was a real dog-fight."

Ljubicic was at a loss to explain his early collapse. "I didn't start badly, but then suddenly I felt like my racket was loose and the balls were flying a little bit too much. And with Roger, if you relax for a second it just goes very quick," he said.

"After those first three games it was no match at all. I don't know, it was really weird. I was playing really well the whole year, and then suddenly I found myself in trouble just to put the ball in the court."

But despite his defeat, the world number 14 was satisfied with the ultimate quality of his challenge, and the way he has performed this year.

"I had a chance in the third, and for me it's really positive to twice in two weeks have a chance against Roger to win the match. It's an absolutely great boost to my confidence that I'm up there and belong with top-class players.

"And I'm satisfied absolutely the way the season is going for me. Four finals, one semi out of six tournaments, who can complain. It's not like you get depressed because you lose four finals, not at all, especially if three of them are against Roger.

"I'm looking forward to beating him in the future, because I think it's not far away."

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