DUBAI: Elina Svitolina beat Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 6-0 to win the Dubai Championships for the second year in a row.
The fourth-ranked Ukrainian becomes only the third woman to defend the title, after Justine Henin (2003-2004) and Venus Williams (2009-2010).
Svitolina beat the 24th-ranked Kasatkina for the third time in as many meetings after the Russian had saved five match points during the week in two matches.
“It’s amazing to win here again,” 23-year-old Svitolina said. “Even being the defending champion is amazing.
“I was just trying to hit the ball onto the court and make her run today. At the end I’m very happy with how I played, with this whole week, actually.”
Kasatkina brought in the accumulated wear and tear of just over nine hours on court during the week, with the Russian blinking first in the final as she dropped serve to trail 3-2 on a wide return in the opener.
Kastakina saved three set points to hold at 4-5 before the champion served out the opener after 44 minutes on her fourth opportunity.
The top seed immediately consolidated her advantage, breaking to start the second set and quickly racing away to a 3-0 lead as the reserves of Kasatkina began to drain further.
Svitolina made it 4-0 with ease and cantered to victory in just 70 minutes to earn the 11th title of her career.
Elina Svitolina claims back-to-back Dubai titles
Elina Svitolina claims back-to-back Dubai titles
Ex-heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua injured in Nigeria highway crash
- Pictures circulating online showed a shirtless Joshua — a British national of Nigerian heritage — surrounded by what appeared to be broken window glass
LAGOS: Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua suffered “minor injuries” in a fatal car accident that killed two people Monday, Nigerian police said.
Pictures circulating online showed a shirtless Joshua — a British national of Nigerian heritage — surrounded by what appeared to be broken window glass on the seats around him.
The circumstances around the wreck are “currently being investigated,” said police in Ogun state, just north of Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos, which throngs with visitors from across the country and diaspora each December.
Joshua “was seated in the rear of the vehicle, sustained minor injuries and (is) receiving medical attention,” the police statement said.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told Daily Mail Sport he was on a family holiday and “awoke to the news of this incident.”
“We are trying to contact Anthony and in the meantime we don’t want to speculate on how he is but thankfully he appears OK from what I have seen in the images,” he said.
Police said the wreck, in which two people in Joshua’s car were killed, occurred around 11:00 am, in the town of Makun, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps said in a statement that the Lexus Joshua was riding in “was suspected to be traveling beyond the legally prescribed speed limit on the corridor, lost control during an overtaking maneuver and crashed into a stationary truck... by the side of the road.”
Witness Adeniyi Orojo told Punch news Joshua was traveling in a two-vehicle convoy, and was seated behind his driver.
“The passenger beside the driver and the person beside Joshua died on the spot,” he said.
The police gave the same toll, saying the two killed were “passengers in the vehicle” who “lost their lives at the scene.”
The names of the victims have not been released but a spokesman for the Ogun state governor said preliminary reports indicated they were “two male foreign nationals.”
Earlier this month Joshua knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a Netflix-backed bout in Miami.
The former Olympic champion Joshua has since been linked with a fight against compatriot and fellow former world champion Tyson Fury.
Joshua’s last fight prior to the match with Paul was a fifth round knockout loss to fellow Briton Daniel Dubois in September last year.
