Defending champion Elina Svitolina advanced to her second consecutive final in Dubai after easing past Angelique Kerber 6-3 6-3.
Despite the scoreline the first set proved to be a struggle for both players as they failed to find their first serves during the first set. This lead to nobody holding serve until the sixth game where Svitolina managed to find her form and started to dictate play. Once the world number four found her serve there was no stopping her as she broke Kerber for a fourth time to grab the opening set 6-3 in 45 minutes.
The second set continued in the same vain as long rallies and service holds continued with the Ukrainian finding it harder to hold serve in the second set. The German had only lost two matches this season and she was starting to prove why she is so hard to break down as the defending champion was left frustrated at times.
However Svitolina found an opening in the sixth game and took full advantage as she broke to 15 for a 4-2 lead. There was no way back for the world number nine as the defending champion would ensure she competed in a second consecutive final, as she completed a 6-3 6-3 victory in just under an hour and a half.
Svitolina, who is looking for a second title of the season will have a tough battle in the final though as she will be facing Russian Daria Kasatkina. The world number 24 booked her place into the final with a 3-6 7-6(11) 6-1 victory over Garbine Muguruza.
Despite her Spanish opponent having three match points, the 20 year old hung in to defeat an eventually fatigued Muguruza. The Russian nearly lost after a lines-judge overruled a call on match point for Muguruza, but after that point the talented youngster used her forehand to dictate play and overcome the world number three in 2 hours and 35 minutes.
Shot Of The Day
Despite not gaining the all important victory, Muguruza did hit the shot of the day after a gutsy volley managed to find the line in the second set tiebreak. Despite the loss it has been a very positive couple of weeks for the Spaniard and moments like these will give her inspiration for the next part of the tour:
.@GarbiMuguruza finds the low volley magic for the Shot of the Day at @DDFTennis. pic.twitter.com/NmZuByFEzL
— wta (@WTA) February 23, 2018
The final between Elina Svitolina and Daria Kasatkina will take place at 7pm local time tomorrow.
