At the end of a superb 20th edition of the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships the final is left to the number one seed and the most in-form player on the WTA Tour at the moment.
It is all set up to be a thrilling final with a clash of styles between the two players. Who will win? Here are our thoughts.
WTA Dubai Final Prediction
Simona Halep vs Elena Rybakina
Head-to-Head Record: Rybakina 1-0 Halep (Halep retired at 5-4 in first set)
Rybakina is in the final of a WTA tournament. This sentence has been written four times already this season, and we are only in the middle of February. Most tennis fans have barely registered the one tournament by this stage so this rocket rise may have passed some people by. Even for those who knew of the Kazakh and her progress into the top 20 from #176 this time last year, her performances this week have still been impressive.
Rybakina beat the Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, then Siniakova and then the world #3 Karolina Pliskova to reach the semifinals. Petra Martic put up a great fight and used the tactics I thought that she might to try and make Rybakina move around the court. Martic had set points in each set, but in keeping with her season so far, Rybakina produced the goods when she most needed to.
The mathematician inside me wonders how long the Kazakh can keep up this ridiculous overperformance on break points and set points. Variance tells me the level of her performance on these individual points must change, but it may not change tomorrow in the final. Her confidence levels are through the roof.
Halep produced an impressively dominant performance against Jennifer Brady in her semifinal. She dropped only two games and was all over the American from the first ball. It was Brady’s first WTA Premier semifinal and maybe nerves did play a part but it looked more like Halep used the perfect tactics and execution to outplay the American.
The Romanian will probably not be able to do exactly that to Rybakina. However, Darren Cahill (Halep’s coach) will have been watching Rybakina very closely to work out the right strategy. Of course, lots of players have tried that this year but few have been able to execute.
Last week Rybakina played the St. Petersburg final against Kiki Bertens. Bertens played to her strengths and beat the Kazakh comfortably. Halep and Bertens are both excellent clay court players and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Halep tries to emulate some of the successful tactics the Dutchwoman used last week. Halep doesn’t have as big a serve as Bertens but her movement is exceptional and her groundstrokes have been getting progressively better this week.
Every match Rybakina has played this week I have predicted against her. That obviously hasn’t worked out thus far, but again I just feel as though Halep has the right set skills to defeat the youngster and the experience to execute in a final.
Prediction: Halep in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
