TENNIS WTA DUBAI – Karolina Pliskova edged past Garbine Muguruza in three hard-fought sets with 6-4 5-7 7-5 in the first semifinal of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The match between two of the best rising stars of the circuit was dominated by serve, as predicted as both players are big servers and were difficult to break. Simona Halep came back from a set down to beat Caroline Wozniacki 2-6 6-1 6-1 in the second semifinal. Diego Sampaolo
Muguruza committed nine double faults and faced 10 break points. Pliskova saved two break point chances before breaking serve in the seventh game when Muguruza committed a double fault.
In the second set the young Czech player faced some problems on her serve and faced seven break points. She was less solid with her serve and won 67 percent of her second serve points compared to 78 percent of second serve points in the first set.
Muguruza improved on her serve compared to the first set. She dropped just three points on her second serve and broke serve in the 12th game after Pliskova committed a costly double fault.
Pliskova got the only break of the third in the 11th game before saving three straight break-back points in the next game to seal a hard-fought win. Pliskova has reached her first Premier 5 final and her career high 12th position in the WTA Ranking
“I feel amazing. I really didn’t expect to get to the final. We both have good serves, so it’s always going to be tough to break. Even if you have 0-30 or 0-40, it doesn’t mean anything until you get that final point. I put everything into my serve to get that final game”, said Pliskova
In tomorrow’s final Pliskova will face Simona Halep who fought back from a set down to beat Caroline Wozniacki 2-6 6-1 6-1. Halep has reached her second WTA final this year after Shenzhen.
Halep was probably tired in the first set after her marathon match against Ekaterina Makarova. Wozniacki dominated the first set with 6-2 in just 30 minutes in which she dropped just four service points. Halep turned around the match completely bouncing back from a below-par first set cruising to 4-0 in with a double break the second set en route to a 6-1 win in the second set. The young Romanian player raised the level of her match and opened up a 2-0 lead in the decider before wrapping up the third set with 6-1.
“It was tough match. I had to run a lot. I thank the crowd. They were amazing. I will have to try to be aggressive”, said Halep
