Barbora Krejcikova won the final of Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, taking the title in first WTA 1000 tournament of the season. The Czech made a big upset on Iga Swiatek, defeating the current world's ranking leader with a surprisingly comfortable win 6-4 6-2. Swiatek, who was crushing all her opponents during the middle-east swing campaign so far, was a huge pre-match favorite, rated with an average odd 1.13. However, the takeaways from this week allowed to assume, that Krejcikova will be a tough opponent for the Pole. The Roland Garros 2021 champion was on the wave after a huge comeback performed in the quarterfinal's clash against Aryna Sabalenka, showing the performance quite close to her peak since then in Dubai. The Pole seemed to suffer a cold in yesterday's semis against Cori Gauff and was a little bit more shaky in terms of consistence, than during the previous in last two weeks. The fans could remember the last meeting against Krejcikova and Swiatek from the Ostrava final 4 months ago, won by the Czech after an impressive three-sets battle.
Krejcikova could not start the final match better, gaining an early break in the opening game. Swiatek was trying to fight back and was close to reach it, while the middle phase of the set brough four breaks in the row. Krejcikova managed to keep her advantage and served out the 6-4 set win.
It was a wake-up call for Swiatek, who suffered the set loss for first time since Australian Open's quarterfinal against Elena Rybakina. The Pole was trying to put a pressure on her opponent, doing int quite well after start of the second set, producing 4 breakpoints on Krejcikova's serve. The Czech has condifently came out of trouble tough, and after two big holds, launched her offensive attitude again, routining Swiatek in the following four games and crossing the line with a victory. The Czech was much better player today, playing with better consistency, taking the initiative and being much more clinical in the key points. Swiatek has recorder pretty miserable stats with 27 unforced errors made in compare to just 10 winners and very low first serve accuracy - 46%.
The Czech continues the good series of her appearances in finals. Today's title is her 6 win out of 8 finals played on WTA level so far. Interestingly, two latest of them are the wins against Swiatek, which can foreshadow some interesting rivarly, if she keeps to play at the level like today for a longer time. Krejcikova gains a big ranking boost, as she moves up into 16th place in the next WTA list, advancing from 30th. Swiatek still leads with a huge gap behind her, having 10585 points in her tally before the Sunshine Double.
