Ninth seed Garbine Muguruza edged Barbora Krejcikova 7-6(6) 6-3 in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships to win her first WTA singles title since 2019 and eighth overall.
Having not dropped a set en route to her biggest career singles final, the world No.63 Krejcikova saved three set points in the opening set against Muguruza to force a tiebreak. The two-time Grand Slam champion Muguruza then also faced a set point, but saved it to prevail in the tight set.
The second set was more straightforward as Muguruza broke Krejcikova early on, held on to that lead and ended the match with another solid game on her opponent’s serve.
The 16th-ranked Muguruza opened her week in Dubai with a straight-set win over Irina-Camelia Begu, then defeated Amanda Anisimova in the second round, reigning Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek in the third, Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals, Elise Mertens in the semifinals, and finally Krejcikova, the lowest-ranked player to advance to the Dubai final.
The 27-year-old Muguruza was contesting her third final of 2021, the previous two being at the Yarra Valley Classic and Qatar Total Open. This latest triumph increases Muguruza’s Tour-leading number of wins in 2021 to 18.
During the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Muguruza was wearing the Adidas Primeblue Dress, from the brand’s collection released in time for the Australian Open.
Congrats to Garbine who has been oh so close this year. Also congratulations to another Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo who defeated Eugenie Bouchard in the finals at Guadalajara, Mexico. On the match, “That was super frustrating,” Bouchard said. “I felt like I was playing 12-and-under tennis at some points there. I don’t know. She was just outgrinding me. I shouldn’t have lost four games in a row like that at the end. Sometimes I didn’t know what to do.” Hmm was she dissing Sara’s style of play? (SST plays a defensive style with a lot of slicing and moonballs)
Jim, thank’s for completing my article 🙂 I don’t have an impression that she was dissing Sara’s game. She was simply frustrated with her own performance.