DUBAI - In the most one-sided final in the 24-year history of the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Italy's Sara Errani was on Saturday victorious over Czech Barbora Strycova 6-0, 6-2.
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Italy's Sara Errani poses with the trophy after winning her women's singles tennis final match against Czech Republic's Barbora Strycova at the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships February 20, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] |
Errani took the first set within half a hour. "Yes, I was surprised about winning the match so fast and so straight, but Barbora also had not her best day. It is amazing that I won," said the Italian who cashed in 465,480 U. S. dollars prize money.
Errani, ranked 22nd in the world, played from the beginning at full-speed and left her Czech opponent little chance to resist her fast shots from corner to corner and her swift swaps from the baseline to the net.
After one hour and six minutes amid 21 degrees Celsius outdoor temperatures on Saturday evening in the Gulf Arabian sheikhdom, the match was decided and Errani, who was overwhelmed by emotions and relieve, ran to her coach Pablo Lozano and embraced him, shedding tears of happiness.
As both players are 1.64 meter tall, they focused also on tricking each other by playing surprise slice shots.
Twenty-nine-year-old Strycova, ranked 41st, appeared exhausted after her three-set semi-final win over France's Caroline Garcia on Friday.
"This was truly not my day. All went wrong during this match, but I am also happy about my performance during the tournament as a whole. "
At 0-2 in the second set, a desperate Strycova started weeping which the several thousand spectators in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium replied with loud applause to motivate her.
Until that time nearly everything that could go wrong, went wrong for the Plzen-born who lives in the United States. At stand 1-4, the Czech seemed to have lost her nerves, but managed to win one more game.
"The support of the spectators was indeed great. I am most thankful to all of them and I also heard many Czech fans in the audience, that lifted my mood," she said.
Errani agreed, saying that "the atmosphere in Dubai and the hard court are very good."
"I have no specific objectives for the rest of 2016, you never know what will come and I do not think too much about it," said the 28-year-old Bologna-born who will play the Qatar Total Open in Doha which runs from February 21 to 27.
