Elina Svitolina, the seventh seed, 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 Carolina 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.
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.
Her ability to keep running for every point and the talent to pull off that sensational forehand had suffocated the left-handed world number two Angelique Kerber in the semi-final on Friday.
Wozniacki too bore the brunt of that forehand on Saturday night.
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 a 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.