Elina Svitolina pulled off what only two others have done at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship Saturday night. The world number four defended her title against Daria Kasatkina of Russia winning 6-4, 6-0 on Centre Court at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium. She joined Venus Williams and Justine Henin as players who won again as defending champions.
This was the second title defense for the world number four and the first of this magnitude since winning Dubai for the first time last season. The 23 year old Ukrainian took care of former world number one Angelique Kerber in straight sets Friday to make it back to the final. While she did not find herself playing the same athlete, she had met the Russian twice before winning in a tight finish. The 20 year old who won the Volvo Car Open on the clay courts of South Carolina would try to add a hard court premier title and avoid handing Svitolina her second of the season.
The Russian opened a strong service against the Ukrainian making it difficult on her opponent’s service. The number one seed forced to deuce to hold serve and win on the first break chance. She continued to match Kasatkina putting together a much stronger serve that brought together a higher degree of strength. Svitolina delivered the first break of the set landing a net front shot that the Russian barely missed returning. The break point was put down for the 3-2 lead before she consolidated with another hold of serve.
Kasatkina came back to get another but the world number four had her serve under control leading 5-3 with the break in reach. She got too eager on a second set point attempt that led the Russian to deuce with Svitolina. They played a couple of breaks before the 20 years old fought deep to hold serve and get within a game to send the set forward in extra frames. With the serve back in hand, Svitolina dictated the tenth to prevent the set from getting out to hand, closing it down in 43 minutes. While she had an 81 percent serve from the first, putting together 19 errors and unable to secure break points was her downfall to being a set down and Svitolina halfway from a successful title defense.
During the set break, Kasatkina had a chat with her brother and coach who told her to play the next set on her own terms as she could over power the bigger play if she put her heart into winning. She had a run going but lost control allowing Svitolina to force deuce and take the opening break of the set. She conducted a hold to go with it creating her first gap on the young Russian.
It got bigger as the unforced errors were getting out of hand for Kasatkina as she dropped another one to go down 3-0 with no end in sight. Svitolina had her serve still on lock putting together good placed shots on the forehand that gave her a runaway chance for the title. She raced to a 5-0 run breaking the 20 year old with a triple break point that pushed her to falter. The match was in her hands serving in the sixth for the bagel while many fans did not want to see Kasatkina end the night this way.
The world number 24 battled against the Ukrainian’s serve but her forehand was still weak making it Svitolina’s to serve on match point. On a third shot in the rally, the 23-year-old smashed a winner far from Kasatkina’s reach to end the 70-minute match. “It’s amazing come back to play as defending champion then was amazing,” Svitolina said during her on court interview. “I want to congratulate Daria for her performance here and were gonna see more of her winning here.”
She finished with a 71 first serve percentage with 18 winners and two aces in the competition. “I was just trying to hit the ball into the court and make a rally and in the end, I was very happy I handled the pressure throughout the week and I’m very pleased.”
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