Simona Halep defeated Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) on Saturday to secure her 20th career title with victory at the Dubai Championship...
Simona Halep defeated Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) on Saturday to secure her 20th career title with victory at the Dubai Championships and claimed she felt “pretty dead”.
The world number two from Romania, who also won the title in Dubai in 2015, clinched her first trophy since Wimbledon last summer.
“I love playing here, I gave everything I had,” said Halep who had been 1-3 down in the final set and took victory after coming back from a set down for the third successive match in Dubai.
“Now, actually, I’m pretty dead.”
Rybakina, 20, who will rise to 17 from 19 in the new rankings next week, was playing her fourth final from five tournaments in 2020 having won the Hobart trophy last month on the eve of the Australian Open.
“She’s a talented player,” Halep said of her opponent who has a WTA-leading 19 match wins for the season. “She’s young and has many more years ahead of her.”
A list of @Simona_Halep's 20 @WTA titles:
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) February 22, 2020
Nuremberg
Rosmalen
Budapest
New Haven
Moscow
Sofia
Doha
Bucharest x2
Shenzhen x2
Dubai x2
Indian Wells
Madrid x2
Montreal x2
Roland-Garros
Wimbledon
Is this the year "New York" is added to the list? pic.twitter.com/LUZgH0R40H
Rybakina, who was just inside the top 200 this time last year, took the tight final set into a deciding tiebreaker when she broke Halep as the top seed...
