Top seed Elina Svitolina ended the run of the unseeded Daria Kasatkina to win the Dubai title. The Ukrainian was in-form throughout the final, winning 6-4, 6-0 in one hour and ten minutes.
Svitolina took the crucial break of the first set in the fifth game. The World No.4 had three more break points to take the set through a double break. Instead, Kasatkina would fight for the hold. It did not prove crucial, as Svitolina held serve for the lead.
If the first set had been close on the scoreboard, then the second was decidedly one-sided. Svitolina built on her success of winning the first set, and broke immediately in the second. Kasatkina’s challenge quickly faded as she failed to make any inroads against the Svitolina serve.
The Russian suffered another blow as she was broken in the third game as Svitolina quickly put distance between herself and her opponent. Svitolina held, before breaking again and then won the match. She had won the last eight games of the match without reply to take the title in some style.
Svitolina enjoyed a great tournament where she only dropped one set, to lucky loser Qiang Wang in her opening match. Wins against Naomi Osaka and impressively against Angelique Kerber followed before the final.
Kasatkina came close to winning her second career singles title. Unseeded, she had won matches against 7th seed Johanna Konta, former Top 15 player Elena Vesnina, and 2nd seed Garbine Muguruza. World No.4 Svitolina proved a match too far for the Russian,but it was still a great tournament.
