Sara Errani beat Elina Svitolina 6-4 6-4 in the first semifinal to get through to the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Tournament for the second time in her career.
The 1 hour and 51 minute match was a battle with long rallies and games featuring eight breaks. Errani converted five of her 14 break point chances and dropped her serve three times.
Errani went up a break twice at 1-1 and at 3-3 but Svitolina broke straight back both times. Both players had their chances but Errani held her nerve in the most crucial moments and got the crucial break in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead and served out for the first set in the next game after a 55-minute battle.
In the second set Errani went down a break to trail 1-3 but then she got two consecutive breaks in the seventh game for 4-3 and in the ninth game for 5-4. In the final game Errani rallied from 0-30 down to 40-30. She served out for the win on the first match point as Svitolina hit long.
“It was really tough. Every point, every game was really long with a lot of points. I just tried to play focused on every one. It’s unbelievable for me to be playing in another final.”, said Errani.
Errani will be bidding to win her 9th WTA title in the fifth Premier final of her career. She lost to Petra Kvitova in the 2013 Dubai final. She will take on the winner of the second semifinal between Caroline Garcia and Barbora Strykova. She has a positive win-loss record in her head-to-head matches against her potential rivals in tomorrow’s final (4-2 against Garcia and 5-1 against Strykova).
