Halep defeats Rybakina in epic Dubai Duty Free Championship final

The Dubai Duty Free Championship featured a fierce battle between Simona Halep and Elena Rybakina with the Romanian emerging as the victor after a heroic comeback.

The Dubai Duty Free Championship 2020 final was an epic 3-set match between Halep and Rybakina that had plenty of quality tennis. The 1st was a very interesting affair. Halep served great which was the biggest worry for her entering the match. During the course of the tournament, she struggled quite a bit with it. Today it was good but still, it wasn't enough. Rybakina broke her opponent quite early in the set due to impeccable play on her own serve. Her initial shot was working really well and she could often end the point with a winner.

When they did play longer rallies she was really good from the baseline especially on the forehand which she played quite deep. That allowed her to force Halep way back into the defensive, a position she doesn't enjoy. She had some troubles at the end of the set when she allowed two break points but saved them both to clinch the set 6-3.

2nd Set

Heading into the 2nd set it was obvious that things didn't work. Rybakina was too strong from the baseline today hitting winners from all angles. The beginning of the 2nd set didn't bring much change. It was the same style of play by Halep with the same result. However, in the 4th game of the 2nd set, she got a lucky break. Rybakina missed some shots and Simona played some nice rallies and found herself with 3 breakpoints.

Another forehand slammed wide by Rybakina and Halep was up 3-1. A crazy sequence of events unfolded next with both player's losing their own serves. It was a spectacular battle but Halep was aided by Rybakina herself who couldn't hit a 1st serve at all. At the end of it, all Simona had a chance to level the score and she took it. The end result was 6-3 and we were headed for an epic decider set.

3rd Set

The epic battle from set two continued into set 3. Rybakina fended off several attempts of Halep to break her serve to hold a steady 2-1 lead. In the next game, she would receive a gif. Halep struggled a bit in that game and gave her a breaking ball. She then committed a double fault giving away the game. She once more had to fight back against a very good Rybakina today.

Fatigue, however, started to kick in with the Russian. She played her 2nd final in two weeks and it took a toll. Halep took advantage of some mistakes by the Russian and broke her serve. She was trailing 2-3 but she looked more fresh despite making a lot of mistakes from the baseline. She won her game after which both player traded games till we arrived at 5-5.

In that game, Halep hit some amazing shots to break her opponent. Rybakina was completely depleted, it was her forehand mistake that lost her the game. However, Rybakina fought back to tie it at 6-6. It was destined to end in a tiebreak. And it was the former world number 1 that won it 7-6(5). Congratulations to Simona. A marvellous final and a well-deserved win for Halep.

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