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Svitolina breaks into top 10 with Dubai win

By AFP
February 25, 2017

DUBAI: Elina Svitolina beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-2 to win a rain-delayed final at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Saturday which sent her into the top 10.

The Ukrainian cracked the elite on tenth for the first time as she defeated 2011 champion Wozniacki, a former world number one seven years ago.

Svitolina´s victory in a match which began two hours late due to weather marked the biggest win of her career.

The Ukrainian, who won the Taipei title this season, spent 54 minutes in claiming the first set in a battle of long points, with Wozniacki saving two set points -- one with a second-serve ace -- before losing from a forehand long.

Svitolina took a 3-2 lead in the second set on a break, then reached 5-2 before drilling a forehand winner down the line for victory after less than 90 minutes.

Wozniacki was playing her second final in as many weeks after finishing runner-up in Doha to Karolina Pliskova.