SVITOLINA’S SHOW
Offering a glimpse into the future, Elina Svitolina ended an agonizing wait to step on the court on a wet night littered with several passing showers.
The seventh seed then gave a tennis masterclass to win her first Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title on Saturday.
Her opponent in the final, former world number one and 2011 Dubai champion Caroline Wozniacki, had no answer to her brilliance as the 22-year-old Ukrainian won the final 6-4 6-2 to win her sixth WTA singles title.
It’s a big step for Svitolina whose biggest ambition in life is to become the world number one. After her win on Saturday, she will move into the top 10 of the women’s game for the first time in her career. “It’s a very special win for me because it’s a very special tournament. I am very happy with the way I played in the final tonight,” Svitolina said after the final.
“It’s always tough to play against Caroline. She is such a tough fighter. She never steps back. So it was a great win for me,” she added.
Turning defence into attack is a great skill in tennis and Svitolina certainly showed plenty of that by changing gears in stunning style in the first set when Wozniacki tried to take the pace off the ball in the long rallies.
On several occasions in the first set, Svitolina kept returning every ball running from one end to the other and then she suddenly pulled the trigger leaving the Dane stranded in no man’s land.
Her ability to keep running for every point and the talent to pull off that sensational forehand had suffocated the lefthanded world number two Angelique Kerber in the semifinal on Friday.
Wozniacki too bore the brunt of that forehand on Saturday night. “I have been working very hard on that forehand for many years. I am very happy that I could hit those today in the important moments,” she later said.
Her opponent in Saturday’s final was a tenacious right-hander who felt powerless to stop her relentless urge to dominate every point.
A single break of serve in the sixth game put the Ukrainian in the driver’s seat in the first set. Then a few uncharacteristic unforced errors from Svitolina in the 10th game gave Wozniacki three break points at 0-40 only for the Ukrainian to save all of them and convert the second set point.
In the second set, the centre court crowd the saw the same script — a script in which an Ukrainian calls all the shots against a hapless Dane.
Three breaks of serves sucked the life out of Wozniacki and despite passionate support from her fans, she never found another gear to match her younger rival.
After wasting her first championship point in the eight game of the second set, Svitolina hit an outrageous backhand down the line to end her one-hour-28 minute of tennis masterclass on the Dubai centre court.
It’s very special win for me because it’s a very special tournament. I am very happy with the way I played in the final tonight Svitolina
DUBAI — A knee injury prevented Angelique Kerber from playing her best tennis in the 6-3 7-6 semifinal defeat to Elina Svitolina at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. It was a heartbreaking defeat for the German world number two as a title win in Dubai would have taken her back to the top of women’s ranking.
But the US Open champion said that was the last thing on her mind after her defeat to Ukraine’s Svitolina on Friday.
“I’m not thinking about this. I mean, everybody is writing or asking or whatever, but for me, I know how it feels to be No. 1. I reached it once, and for sure I will try to get back there,” she said.
“But for me it’s really important to be healthy, and at the end, if I play consistent in the next weeks or months, then we will see what happens. I am now just looking forward to the next big tournaments. I will try to take the positive things from this tournament that I found my rhythm back, that I was able to come back and play good tennis again.”