DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko (21st in the world) won the 5th title of her career on Saturday, winning the WTA 500 final in Dubai against Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova (31st) 6-0, 6-4.
Ostapenko, 24, is thus guaranteed to return to top 15 in the next WTA ranking published on Monday, in 13th place, the one that had fallen beyond 50th place a year ago.
Latvia will not have an easy trip to Dubai, a tournament in which it had never passed the second round in its previous five participations. To reach the final, he had to eliminate four former Grand Slam champions: Sofia Kenin, Iga Sviatek, Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep and finally in the semifinals.
Each time, Ostapenko, the same Roland-Garros winner in 2017, would need three sets to beat her opponents and even save a match point against Halep.
This time, he did not have to fight so hard, taking off very quickly at the beginning of the game, winning the first set in just 20 minutes, taking advantage of the Russian’s heavy deficit in the first ball (22%), appeared on the court with a left thigh in heavily tied.
In the second set, Kudermetova, who had triumphed significantly over defending champion Garbine Muguruza in the round of 16, recovered. He then made the break break, resisting the return of Ostapenko who had risen before making another break, returned to Latvia, while the latter was used to win the match.
But that only helped to delay the deadline: the former No. 5 in the world, playing with her great qualifications in return, finished the next game with her second match point in just over an hour.
Ostapenko and Kudermetova were not at the end of their sentence: they also qualified for the doubles final in Dubai, they had to face each other again with their respective partners. It is the first time that two players meet in the final of the singles and doubles in the same WTA tournament after Lugano in 2018.
