BEVERLY HILLS, March 14, (THEWILL) – Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, a former world number one female player, had to dig deep to claim the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title.
The Spaniard overcame Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic on Saturday night to end her trophy drought on Saturday in Dubai, the Spaniard’s first WTA singles title in almost two years.
They both played a nip-and-tuck first set which could have gone either way with strong service games and amazing rallies, but Muguruza just got over the line before easing away in the second set in the tough encounter.
The 27-year-old had last won a tournament at Monterrey, Mexico, in April, 2019. Since then she reached the title rounds at the 2020 Australian Open, Yarra Valley Classic in Melbourne in February and last week’s event in Doha, Qatar.
“It is amazing to be here,” said Muguruza. “I have been coming here for so many years and always came close. But it has finally paid off. I am always contending in every tournament, but here I am with the trophy.”
Muguruza, whose loss in the Qatar Open final to Petra Kvitova last week was painful to watch insisted every win counts, but every trophy helps. “I am so happy to finally lift the Dubai crown. There are no fans, but I know they are cheering me.”
The strongly built Spaniard won her maiden Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2016 and bagged her second at Wimbledon the following year to climb to the top of the women’s rankings.
Currently, she is ranked 16th but leads the WTA tour with 18 victories during the 2021 season.
There were plenty of upsets, break points and dramas before Muguruza won the first-set tiebreak, and then, after a tussle at the start of the second, Muguruza eased away from her unseeded opponent.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
