Iga Swiatek handed shock defeat in final as Barbora Krejcikova wins Dubai Tennis Championships

World No.1 Iga Swiatek failed to put in much of a fight in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships against Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova.

The 21-year-old Swiatek lost 4-6, 2-6 in just over an hour and 30 minutes at Centre Court. Krejcikova, who is currently the 30th-ranked singles player on the WTA tour, carried her dream run in the tournament. The 2021 French Open champion went into the final after beating three players in the top 10 of the WTA Rankings, Daria Kasatkina, 2023 Australian Open women’s singles champion Aryna Sabalenka and World No.3 Jessica Pegula.

Beating Swiatek was expected to pose a few challenges since the latter came into the championship after winning the Qatar Open earlier this month. Swiatek had the better of Coco Gauff in straight sets in the semis.

Her first-ever Hologic WTA Tour 1000 title!!!

🇨🇿 @BKrejcikova claims the @DDFTennis crown with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat over [1] Swiatek 👏#DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/gLZvf0ImyO

— wta (@WTA) February 25, 2023

The first set of the match between Swiatek and Krejcikova was about breaks of serve. Swiatek earned two of them, but her opponent went one step ahead to bag three and close out the opening set.

After fighting hard in the first set, Swiatek lost a lot of rhythm in the second. She had four chances of breaking Krejcikova’s serve, but she failed to convert even one. Krejcikova, on the other hand, earned two breaks of serve and didn’t let Swiatek get a foothold back into the contest.

Swiatek faltered big time with her second serves as she won only 23.5 percent points (4 out of 17) from them. The fact that she made three double faults showed how nervous she was with her second serves.