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| Garbine Muguruza clenches her first during a hard-fought point in the final with Barbora Krejcikova at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championship Saturday. |
This was the first time meeting in such a big moment in the Emirate City with the Czech playing in her first WTA final since Nurnberg in 2017. The qualifier was in a big spot against the former world number one, who was in her third WTA title match this season. After losing out in Doha, the Spaniard wanted to finish the week holding the title in Dubai. Krejcikova had a huge obstacle in front of her, facing a former top-five player for the first time this tournament. With the odds stacked well against her, the 25-year-old would have to find a way through the aggressive style that Muguruza consistency showed.
The Czech played every point, forcing deuce on the seventh and going three breaks with Muguruza. She produced three breakpoints that broke the Spaniard to sit in front on the scoreboard. The ninth seed broke back in the second using the same tactics from the first, denying Krejcikova any leverage to force deuce on her serve. She blasted out a 40-0 only to see the Czech try and rally a threat in the third. Muguruza managed to put it away to hold serve and maintain the lead.
Krejcikova responded with a hold in the fourth, holding the Spaniard to one point to level. Muguruza committed her first double fault in the fifth game yet controlled her service to secure the serve. With the game in check, the Spaniard added a break to consolidate herself to a 4-2 lead. Adding another service to take a three-game lead on Krejcikova was not in the cards as the 25-year-old fought to hold from her end.
Krejcikova leveled things in the eighth, backing up the break of Muguruza to hold serve. The 27-year-old fired shots at the body of the Czech to get through the ninth with the pressure back on her opponent. Krejcikova served to extend the set, feeling no pressure whatsoever as she gained a shot a serving to love, but gave up one in her quest to tie it. Muguruza eyed a serve to love for herself in the 11th, but the Czech responded well with a forehand return. The 25-year-old scored another, but her attempt to force deuce was stopped by an ace down the T from the Spaniard, who took the 6-5 lead.
With no more room to wiggle out of a problem, Krejcikova felt the pressure to serve for a tiebreak in the 12th. Muguruza pushed her hard to falter with a pair of errors that led to her three set points. One got away on a forehand shot into the net, and a second on a wide return into the tramlines. Muguruza played to get the third one locked down but during the rally, she lost her footing and slipped. It put Krejcikova to deuce where she fired the ball into the corners, moving into the court for the winner that sent them to a tiebreak.
Both won the first six points on serve making it a tight race to the finish with no clear winner at the first changeover. The Czech held her end in the seventh and was then gifted a minibreak for the 5-3 lead. Muguruza handled a net-front volley with the 25-year-old, using her height to end the battle with a smash. Sitting a point down, Krejcikova leveled her opponent to five-all and forced an error to earn a set point. The Spaniard placed a forehand crosscourt to the Czech’s left, that kept them even into the second change of sides.
Muguruza came into the 13th point, firing an ace on the left baseline that gave her another set point. She clinched a very tight set when Krejcikova returned a slicer too wide, ending her 65-minute fight in heartbreak. Though she had only four aces, they damaged Krejcikova at times including at the end. The 25-year-old served 57 percent and had the same number of winners as Muguruza, but came up short on points won from the service.
It was the first time Krejcikova dropped a set and to regroup, she left the court for nearly 12 minutes leaving Muguruza to cool down while she changed outfits. When play resumed, the ninth seed brought the heat, breaking the Czech who gave up a 40-0 run and broke on the third break of deuce. She tried to counter with a break back, but the 27-year-old stayed tight to force deuce on serve. Krejcikova produced breakpoints but failed to get them to stick. Having saved two AD points, Muguruza sealed the hold of serve after the fourth deuce, creating a deficit.
The 25-year-old got on the board in the third, but facing a gap early was a dangerous point against the Spaniard. Muguruza proved it with another solid service in the fourth, gaining back her two-game margin. Krejcikova refused to let another service game get out of hand, locking down the fifth with only one point to the ninth seed. Muguruza dug in during the sixth when she realized that breaking from the Czech was not occurring on service.
The Spaniard had to fight on deuce, playing four breaks before a blown breakpoint for Krejcikova turned the tables, securing the hold. The 25-year-old double-faulted in the seventh but didn’t give up enough ground for Muguruza to counter. She still had a game on the Czech and held well in the eighth with two brutal slowball winners to play for the title in the ninth. Muguruza executed devastating line shots on Krejcikova, who was down 0-40 on serve.
She tried getting back in, but it was too late as the 25-year-old hit the next point long giving Muguruza the long-awaited championship in two hours and eight minutes. “It’s a great achievement,” said Muguruza after her match. “I’ve been coming here for many years in a row and I felt like I was close but not enough, and today finally I got the champion trophy and very happy after losing two finals to get this one.” The Spaniard had both 31 winners and unforced errors while maintaining a higher serve percentage than her opponent.
“It paid off this week,” she said. “The others I was close, but today I fought harder and very happy about it. I feel like the consistency is so hard to get and being able to play three finals is a great sign that we're on the way.”
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