Dubai---Top-seeded Simona Halep earned the tenth title of her career and made herself a double champion in the Arabian Gulf by capturing the Dubai Open with a tenacious and skilful 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) win over Karolina Pliskova on Saturday.
The Romanian will defend the Doha title next week in good spirits after proving too mobile and tactically too flexible for the 22-year-old Pliskova, who has served the most aces on the WTA Tour this year - now 149 - but missed two break point chances early on.
They proved costly.
Halep, who had shown herself a great fighter by coming back from close to defeat to Ekaterina Makarova in the quarter-finals, took nine points in a row to snatch the first set.
She recovered from a break down in the second, and overcame the disappointment of missing a match point in both the tenth and twelfth games, eventually closing it out in from 3-4 down in the tie-break.
AFP
