Federer Stops Djokovic to Wins 7th Dubai Title

Roger Federer won his 7th title in Dubai, where he topped Djokovic for the 4th time in 6 meetings to run his head-to-head lead to 20-17 over the Serb and world no. 1.  He has now won Wimbledon, Dubai, and Halle 7 times each with Basel and the tour finals 6 times each.
The star-studded field in Doha produced two unseeded finalists and Lucie Safarova taking home the title, defeating Azarenka in the final after the biggest names mostly crashed out in the quarterfinal stage.  It is the biggest title of Safarova's career and last year's Wimbledon semifinalist seems to be continuing her rise and is approaching the top 10.
David Ferrer won Acapulco 3 times on clay but the change of surface hasn't stopped his success there, and he the tour's first 2015 3-time champion (in 3 finals) after defeating Nishikori in the final.  Perhaps I was wrong to write the Spaniard off of a (relatively) poor year in '14.
The red-hot player on the WTA may well be Timea Bacsinszky, who has 13-2 record in '15 and now a 7-match winning streak after dropping just 3 games in the Acapulco final vs Garcia.
And finally, after seeing his rival win in Dubai, Rafael Nadal copied with a title of his own on the clay of Buenos Aires, defeating local favorite Monaco in the final to get the bad taste of his Rio loss to Fognini out of his mouth.

Tournament Finals
Dubai (ATP): 2) Roger Federer (SUI) def. 1) Novak Djokovic (SRB) 6-3 7-5
Doha (WTA): Lucie Safarova (CZE) def. Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 6-4 6-3
Acapulco (ATP): 2) David Ferrer (ESP) def. 1) Kei Nishikori (JPN) 6-3 7-5
Acapulco (WTA): 5) Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) def. 3) Caroline Garcia (FRA) 6-3 6-0
Buenos Aires (ATP): 1) Rafael Nadal (ESP) def. Juan Monaco (ARG) 6-4 6-1

Federer: 84th career title, 7th in Dubai ('03-'05,'07,'12,'14), 2nd of 2015, last '15 Brisbane
Safarova: 6th career title, last '13 Quebec City
Ferrer: 24th career title, 4th in Acapulco ('10-'12, all on clay), 3rd of 2015, last '15 Rio de Janeiro
Bacsinszky: 2nd career title, last '09 Luxembourg
Nadal: 65th career title, last '14 French Open

Defending Champions
Dubai: Roger Federer (SUI), defended title
Doha: Simona Halep (ROU), withdrew
Acapulco (ATP): Grigor Dimitrov (BUL), R2 l. to Harrison
Acapulco (WTA): Dominika Cibulkova (SVK), did not play
Buenos Aires: David Ferrer (ESP), won Acapulco

First ATP QF
-Blaz Rola (SLO), 24-yr-old ranked #85 (Buenos Aires)
-Q) Marsel Ilhan (TUR), 27-yr-old ranked #104 (Dubai)

First ATP win
-Q) Facundo Arguello (ARG), 22-yr-old ranked #146 (Buenos Aires)
-Q) Guido Andreozzi (ARG), 23-yr-old ranked #194 (Buenos Aires)

First WTA win
-Q) Elena Bogdan (ROU), 22-yr-old ranked #547, though she has spent much of the last couple years in the 200s (Acapulco)

Americans Results (men 4-4, women 4-7)
-7-Venus l. to Azarenka, Doha SF; def. 4-Radwanska, QF; def. Zahlavova Strycova, R2; def. Dellacqua, R1
-q-Harrison l. to 2-Ferrer, Acapulco SF; def. 6-Karlovic, QF; def. 3-Dimitrov, R2; def. Young, Acapulco R1
-Johnson l. to 4-Anderson, Acapulco R2; def. Dodig, R1
-Young ret vs q-Harrison, Acapulco R1
-q-Krajicek l. to 7-Giraldo, Acapulco R1
-Mattek-Sands l. to 3-Garcia, Acapulco R2; def. Zacarias, R1
-4-Brengle l. to Torro-Flor, Acapulco R1
-7-Stephens l. to Larsson, Acapulco R1
-Davis l. to q-Bogdan, Acapulco R1
-Rogers l. to 1-Sharapova, Acapulco R1
-q-Chirico l. to l-Duque-Marino, Acapulco R1

Notable results
-Coric got into the Dubai draw as a lucky loser and then advanced to QF after Baghdatis couldn't continue with cramping at an unbelievable 4-4 in the 3rd set TB.  Once there, he took out Murray.
-Gulbis, a semifinalist at the French Open last year, has an 0-5 start to '15 after being dumped out of the Dubai R1 by Istomin
-Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU), a former top 30 player who has missed parts of the last 4 years with injury, qualified in Dubai and upset Cornet, but then had to retire in R2 :-(
-Marie Bouzkova (CZE), a 16-yr-old, took a wild card into Acapulco but lost there to Karantancheva.
-After qualifying in Memphis and Delray Beach, Ryan Harrison qualified in Acapulco as well, but there he reached his first ATP SF since '13 Atlanta and upset Dimitrov and Karlovic
-Sharapova made the semis in Acapulco but then withdrew

3rd set Tiebreaks
Richard Gasquet (FRA) def. 7) Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) 8-6, Dubai R2
Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) ret. vs L) Borna Coric (CRO) at 4-4, Dubai R2
7) Venus Williams (USA) def. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) 7-5, Doha R2
Q) Ryan Harrison (USA) def. 6) Ivo Karlovic (CRO) 7-4, Acapulco QF

Longest Tiebreak
Berdych def. Bolelli 9-7, Dubai R2

Bring on Davis Cup!