Moving back to the Middle East, Federer reached the finals of the Dubai Tennis Championships without losing a set before losing to his budding arch-rival Rafael Nadal 6–2, 4–6, 4–6. This ended the 16-match winning streak that he had started the 2006 season on. It was also the first time Federer had lost a match on a hard court in over a year, the last time coming 13 months earlier in the semifinals of the 2005 Australian Open. Federer successfully defended his Masters title at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, defeating American James Blake in the final 7–5, 6–3, 6–0. This was his third consecutive title in Indian Wells, which set the tournament record for most consecutive titles. This third championship also tied Michael Chang's record of three titles in Indian Wells. Two weeks later he also successfully defended his Masters title at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, defeating Croatian Ivan Ljubičić in the final 7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–4), 7–6(8–6). With his victory in Miami he picked up his second masters title of the year, and became the first player ever to win the grueling Indian Wells-Key Biscayne double in consecutive years. Federer started the clay-court season by reaching the final of the ATP Masters Series event at Monte Carlo. He opened the tournament with a scare needing three sets to defeat an 18-year-old Novak Djokovic; this was the first match between the two rivals, who have played in 45 matches as of March 2018. After reaching the final he lost in four sets to Nadal 2–6, 7–6(7–2), 3–6, 6–7(5–7). In Italy Federer had a difficult road to the finals of Rome defeating Nicolás Almagro 6–3, 6–7(2–7), 7–5 in the quarters and David Nalbandian 6–3, 3–6, 7–6(7–5) in the semifinals. His encounter with Rafael Nadal in the finals saw Federer losing 7–6(7–0), 6–7(5–7), 4–6, 6–2, 6–7(5–7) in a five-set, five-hour and five-minute match that culminated in a decisive 7-5 tiebreak. Federer had held two championship points at 6–5 in the fifth set.