Garbine Muguruza edged past Elise Mertens 6-4 7-6 (7-5) on her seventh match point to reach her 15th career final at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Muguruza has extended his win-loss record to 17-4 this year. The Spaniard has reached the final in consecutive finals for the first time since 2015 when she finished runner-up in Wuhan and won the title in Beijing.
Muguruza hit 36 winners to 40 unforced errors. The two-time Grand Slam champion was broken in the opening game, but she reeled off four consecutive games with two breaks in the second and fourth games to race out to a 4-1 lead. Mertens converted her second break point in the ninth game for 4-5, but Muguruza sealed the first set 6-4 with her third break in the 10th game.
The second set went on serve until the eighth game, when Muguruza broke Mertens at love to take a 5-3 lead. Mertens saved the first match point she faced and won the next three games to take a 6-5 lead earning a chance to serve out the second set. Muguruza converted her second break point to force the match to the tie-break.
Muguruza becomes the fifth player to reach two consecutive finals in the Middle East double after finishing runner-up to Petra Kvitova in Doha last week. Martina Hingis and Justine Henin won both Doha and Dubai in 2001 and 2007 respectively. Caroline Wozniacki won Dubai and finished runner-up in Dubai in 2011. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Caroline Wozniacki finished runner.up in both tournaments respectively in 2004 and 2017.
Mertens went up a 3-1 lead in the tie-break with a mini-break but Muguruza won five consecutive points to earn three match points at 6-3. Mertens saved two chances for 5-6 but Muguruza converted her seventh match point to seal a hard-fought win.
Mertens reached her third Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships semifinal on Thursday with a 3-6 6-3 6-2 win over third seed Aryna Sabalenka. “It took me quite a few match points to close out the match. Mertens is a very talented player, always gives you an extra ball back. I am just happy I could close it in two sets. You have to be all the time concentrated, otherwise she will come back. I didn’t lose the focus even though I could not close it at first. I was just looking forward to the next opportunity”, said Muguruza.
Muguruza set up a final against world number 63 Barbora Krejikova from Czech Republic, who beat Jill Teichmann 7-5 6-2 after 1 hour and 37 minutes. Krejikova has not dropped a set all week to reach her second career singles final. The Czech player saved 10 of the 11 break points she faced.
Teichmann earned two set points at 5-4, but Krejikova saved them with a powerful serve and a forehand to hold on her serve for 5-5. Teichmann went down 0-40 in the next game. The Swiss player saved a break point with an ace, but Kreijkova converted her second break point.
Kreijkova held serve with an ace to seal the first set 7-5. Three long games ended with consecutive breaks. Krejikova held serve to take a 3-2 lead and broke again at love to take a 5-2 lead. The Czech player fended off a break point in the final game, but she converted her third match point.
“I am just really happy I can still keep going, that I still feel good, that I am just enjoying myself all the time when I am on the court“, said Kreijikova.
