{"id":53770,"date":"2023-02-25T09:20:23","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T05:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/?p=53770"},"modified":"2023-02-25T09:20:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T05:20:23","slug":"silky-swiatek-secures-first-dubai-final-spot-as-krejcikova-spoils-pegula-birthday-to-book-exciting-saturday-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/silky-swiatek-secures-first-dubai-final-spot-as-krejcikova-spoils-pegula-birthday-to-book-exciting-saturday-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Silky Swiatek Secures First Dubai Final Spot As Krejcikova Spoils Pegula Birthday To Book Exciting Saturday Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

World No.1 Iga Swiatek remains on course to make it back-to-back titles on the WTA Tour after storming into the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final with an impressive victory over fifth seed Coco Gauff in front of a delighted Centre Court crowd on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

Swiatek will need to be at her silky best for Saturday\u2019s showdown after Barbora Krejcikova upset birthday girl Jessica Pegula 6-1 5-7 6-0 to book a second appearance in the Dubai final. Krejcikova, the 2021 French Open champion, lost to Garbine Muguruza two years ago.<\/p>\n

Swiatek is in impressive form and needed just 1 hour 28 minutes to see off American teenage sensation Gauff 6-4, 6-2. The three-time Grand Slam champion, who had a day off on Thursday after quarter-final opponent Karolina Pliskova withdrew with illness, took control of the match early breaking Gauff\u2019s serve twice in the first set.<\/p>\n

Having dropped just three games in her first two matches this week, the in-form Polebroke in the first game of the second set and raced into a 4-0 lead. Gauff held her next two service games, but Swiatek broke in the seventh and comfortably held serve to secure a place in her first Dubai final. Following her victory, she took time to scribble a message on the TV camera, before revealing who the message was aimed at.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took my time because I didn\u2019t know whether to write in Polish or English. My dad is coming for the final. It\u2019s not often he comes to matches so I just wanted to ask him and pressure him!\u201d said the World No.1, who has now beaten Gauff in six consecutive matches without dropping a set.\u201cCoco is a great player.I knew it was going to be tough and I just had to focus on myself and stick to my tactics. I\u2019m looking forward to tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

NO PARTY FOR PEGULA AS KREJCIKOVA CRACKS ON<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was no birthday luck on court for World No.3Jessica Pegula, who became the latest big-name victim to fall at the hands of an in-control Krejcikova this week. The Czech star came into Friday\u2019s clash in confident mood having already beaten two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the last 16 and current Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

Looking comfortable on the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium Centre Court, Krejcikova raced to a 6-1 first-set win. Pegula dug deep in set two, breaking serve in game 12 to take the match to a decider. However, her opponent, a multiple Grand Slam doubles winner, wasn\u2019t about to hand out any gifts on Pegula\u2019s 29th<\/sup> birthday, storming the deciding set 6-0.<\/p>\n

Having beaten the World No.2 and No. 3 this week, she is in confident mood for Saturday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely gives me a lot of confidence. I think my game is improving with every match and I’m really happy with that,\u201d said Krejcikova. \u201cTomorrow is going to be a new match, new day, different player, different day definitely. I just have to sleep well and try to prepare the best way because I’m going to be playing the best player in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say, it\u2019s always a huge challenge. I love challenges. I expect it\u2019s going to be really difficult because she\u2019s in a great form and she’s playing well. I believe that I\u2019m playing well, as well. I think that I can find a plan that can push her on the back leg. I believe that I have a chance,\u201d added the World No. 30, who beat Swiatek in the Ostrava WTA final last year.<\/p>\n

CHAN SIBLINGS SEIZE SEMI-FINAL CHANCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sisters Hao-ching and Latisha Chan continued their dream run in Dubai with a second-successive victory over top-ranked opponents to book their place in Saturday\u2019s Doubles final. Having beaten No. 1 seeds Gauff and Jessica Pegula in an intense quarter-final clash, the Taiwanese sisters saw off third seeds Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs 6-1, 4-6, 10-4 in an all-action semi-final on Centre Court.<\/p>\n

GRAB YOUR SEATS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tickets for the 31st\u00a0<\/sup>Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships are on sale at dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com<\/a>, starting from Dh55. Tickets are also available at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium Box Office between 9am and 9pm daily. The Championships starts with the 23rd<\/sup>staging of the WTA event, which runs until February 25, before the 31st<\/sup> staging of the ATP Tour 500 tournament from February 26 to March 4.<\/p>\n

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is owned and organised by Dubai Duty Free and held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World No.1 Iga Swiatek remains on course to make it back-to-back titles on the WTA Tour after storming into the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final with an impressive victory over fifth seed Coco Gauff in front of a delighted Centre Court crowd on Friday evening. Swiatek will need to be at her silky best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53770"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53775,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53770\/revisions\/53775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}