Newly: crowned world number one Caroline Wozniacki won her first title of 2011 with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.The match began with Wozniacki holding serve easily enough and looking to establish her characteristic game of running down every ball.Kuznetsova, meanwhile, appeared intent on trying to rediscover the scintillating shots that had previously seen her power past higher-ranked opponents Francesca Schiavone, Agnieszka Radwanska and Flavia Pennetta.Those glorious groundstrokes though were not in evidence as Wozniacki took six of the first seven games, with the 16th-seeded Russian consistently peppering shots either beyond the baseline or into the tramlines. That misfiring gifted Wozniacki an early break, which the 20-year-old Dane sealed with a smart chip-and-charge return and put-away volley, but Kuznetsova rallied immediately as some solid hitting offered up a break back that was duly taken with a half-court, forehand winner.A long forehand then handed Wozniacki the two-game buffer once again and, from thereon in, it was one-way traffic.The Australian Open semi-finalist manoeuvred Kuznetsova sufficiently around the court to receive an airy, lofted ball that got met by a dry, backhand volley for 4-1 and a woeful, forehand drop shot by the latter that sailed into Wozniacki’s right-sided tramline resulted in an even wider gulf.At 5-1, Wozniacki merely had to serve it out to clinch the opener and another heavily-hit shot off Kuznetsova’s forehand wing did the job.Wozniacki got off to a great start in the second set, with the serving Kuznetsova dumping a backhand into the net for a 1-0 advantage, only for a fortuitous net chord to leave the former facing three break points in the ninth game overall.
She managed to save only one of them too as Kuznetsova levelled things up at 1-1, although Wozniacki broke back instantaneously to edge in front 2-1.Three service holds in the row thereafter saw the scoreline nudge along to 4-2 at which point Wozniacki broke to love to be handed the chance to serve for the championship.She fluffed two opportunities to seal the title with the ball in hand and the frustration may have got the better of her as a long forehand gave Kuznetsova a glimmer of hope at 5-3.Any lingering aspirations were quickly snuffed out nonetheless as, on Wozniacki’s third championship point, a Kuznetsova backhand sailed out for the number one seed here to prevail without having lost a single set throughout the whole tournament.Earlier, Liezel Huber and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez beat Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the ladies’ doubles final on Centre Court – Khaleejnews
