Barbora Krejcikova beat Jessica Pegula 6-1 5-7 6-0 and booked a meeting with world No.1 Iga Swiatek in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
After storming through the first set, the world No.30 Krejcikova managed to break right back when the third-seeded Pegula was serving for the set. However, the American used her next opportunity to force a deciding set, as the Czech double-faulted and dropped serve without winning a single point in the game.
Just as it seemed the momentum was on Pegula’s side, Krejcikova regrouped and unapologetically marched through the third set to return to the Dubai final after two years.
Earlier on Friday, top seed Iga Swiatek recorded her sixth straight-set victory over Coco Gauff in as many career meetings of the pair to move into the Dubai final. The Pole advanced with a 6-4 6-2 result in an hour and 28 minutes, improving her undefeated record in WTA 1000 semifinals to 6-0.
Given the recent ruthlessness of Swiatek, we can say that Gauff produced quite a bit of resistance, even though the match featured neither the third set nor tiebreaks. Following the Australian Open, Swiatek has dropped just 14 games: five en route to the WTA 1000 Doha title and a total of nine this week in Dubai, six of which were in the semifinal against Gauff.
Last year in Ostrava, Krejcikova ended Swiatek’s 10-match winning streak in finals with a 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3 upset. Overall, Swiatek leads their head-to-head record 2-1.
