Andy Murray defeated world number one NovakDjokovic 6-2,7-5 to reach the final of the Dubai Open on Friday.

It was the Serb's first defeat of the season after picking up his fifth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

Third seed Murray will play against either Roger Federer or Juan Martin del Potro in Saturday's final.

For Murray, it was some revenge for his five set loss to Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open. The Serb went on to beat Rafael Nadal, also in five sets, in the final.

Djokovic was the defending champion in Dubai and Murray reached the final here for the first time.

The Scot took the first set quickly and was 5-2 up in the second before Djokovic bounced backto level at5-5.

But Murray moved 6-5 up and a sloppy service game from the top seed brought an end to the contest.

On Thursday Djokovic beat the seventh-seeded Tipsarevic 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) but only escaped from set point down at 5-6 in the tiebreaker thanks to a double fault from his fellow Davis Cup star from Serbia.

Friday's other semifinal will see four-time Dubai champion Roger Federer, whose 6-3,6-4 win over Mikhail Youzhny was his 12th over the Russian, against in-form Juan Martin del Potro.

The big Argentine defeated French fourth seed Jo-WilfriedTsonga7-6 (7/1), 6-2.

For a while Djokovic seemed likely to win comfortably against Tipsarevic, with whom he had" practised a million times."

He hit with great power off the ground,

moved superbly, and won the first set in only 27 minutes.

But he ran into difficulty after failing to convert break points at 30-40 in the fifth and seventh games of the second sets.

Tipsarevic struck the ball more boldly, won many of the longer rallies with tenacious baselining, and got the support of the crowd for his fight-back.

Djokovic, meanwhile, appeared to grow tense, and when he went 0-3 and 1-4 down in the tie-break a deciding set looked likely.

But after Tipsarevic's crucial double fault made it 6-6, Djokovic capitalised with a backhand slice to earn a second successive point against serve, and followed it with the winning combination of a good first serve and an unstoppable forehand follow-up.

Asked about playing Murray again, Djokovic said: "We are the same age and the first time we played each other was at the age of 11. So hopefully we will play another great match."