TOP-SEEDED UKRAINIAN SET TO BECOME ONLY THIRD WOMAN TO SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND TITLE
lina Svitolina was a step away from becoming only the third woman to successfully defend her title when she brushed aside sixth seed Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-3 in the second semi-final of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open late yesterday.
The top seed will now meet 20-year-old Daria Kasatkina after the Russian had fought off a one-set deficit to get past favoured Garbine Muguruza in three sets in the first semi-final earlier in the day.
Only Justine Henin and Venus Williams have successfully defended their titles in Dubai since the event was first held in 2001. And yesterday, Svitolina — who surprisingly went on to win the French Open last year — went to put it past Kerber, the Australian Open and US Open champion in 2016.
After an early exchange of breaks, both players remained on serve till defending champion Svitolina rode on six double faults from her German opponent to secure a second break and hold to go 4-2 ahead and then take the set 6-3 in 44 minutes.
The second set too took a similar path with a double fault coming to Svitolina’s rescue at a crucial juncture for the Ukrainian to nose ahead 4-2 and finally serve out set and match and line-up a mouth-watering final against Kasatkina today.
“This is such a pleasing moment for me. It was tough to win against her [Kerber], but I
Women’s singles
Elina Svitolina bt Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-3 Daria Kasatkina bt Garbine Muguruza 3-6, 7-6 (11), 6-1
Doubles
Hao-Ching Chan/Zhaoxuan Yang bt Alicja Rosolska/Abigail Spears 6-4, 7-5
Playing later
Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina vs Su-Wei Hsieh/Shuai Peng
Today’s order of play
Centre Court (Start at 5 pm)
Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina, or Su-Wei Hsieh/Shuai Peng vs Hao-Ching Chan/Zhaoxuan Yang.
(Not before 7pm) Elina Svitolina vs Daria Kasatkina
Doubles final: Singles final
during Wednesday’s late night victory over seventh-seeded wild card Johanna Konta.
Having lost to Caroline Wozniacki in the first round on debut last year, Kasatkina is guaranteed to reach a careerhigh No.22 ranking on Monday, and will break in the top-20 for the first time if she goes on to win the title today.
The two had met in the semifinals of the Brisbane International last year, and the Russian had held one match point during her loss to Muguruza. “I have no idea how I do it [save match points],” Kasatkina said.