Dominant Svitolina retains Dubai title

Published by TenniSmash

Elina Svitolina won the 11th WTA title of her career in Dubai; Getty Images
Elina Svitolina joins Justine Henin and Venus Williams as the third woman to retain the Dubai title after a straight-sets win over Daria Kasatkina.

Elina Svitolina successfully defended her Dubai Tennis Championships title with a comprehensive win over Daria Kasatkina.

Top seed Svitolina won 6-4 6-0 to join Justine Henin (2003-04) and Venus Williams (2009-10) as the only women to retain the title in Dubai.

The Ukrainian ended a dominant week having dropped just one set and 26 games across her four matches.

She has now won 11 of the 13 finals she has played in.

“I was thinking that I could win 13 out of 13,” Svitolina joked afterwards. “I always set really high goals for myself.

“I’m very pleased with my performance through the week. OK, it was maybe not amazing tennis but I was pretty solid. It was enough.”

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Svitolina made the decisive move in the first set with a break for 3-2 and ran away with the second as her opponent appeared to tire.

Kastkina finally ran out of steam after a spectacular week that saw her win the two longest matches of the tournament, at almost three hours apiece, against Johanna Konta and Garbine Muguruza, saving five match points along the way.

The 20-year-old Russian’s error count numbered 34 by the end of the final.

Svitolina will remain at No.4 in the rankings as she heads to the US for the WTA Premier mandatory events in Indian Wells and Miami.

 

 

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