Federer opened his campaign for the seventh Dubai crown with a straight sets victory over Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and then defeated Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, winning in straight sets after a three-game deficit in the first set. Federer passed through the quarterfinals and semifinals with relative ease, dropping only four games against Richard Gasquet and Borna Ćorić. In the final, Federer defeated world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in two sets. Federer elevated his head-to-head record against Djokovic to 20–17 overall, and 15–13 on hard courts with the straight sets victory. The victory gave Federer a record 7th Dubai crown. He also finished the tournament without dropping a set. During the final match, Federer hit 12 aces and surpassed the 9,000 aces mark in his career total, joining Goran Ivanišević, Ivo Karlović and Andy Roddick as the only players to achieve the mark since aces totals were recorded.
