Errani storms into Dubai Tennis Championships final

Dubai - Despite playing two tough matches on Thursday, the 28-year-old player showed no signs of fatigue under the Dubai sun.

With five Grand Slam doubles titles, three Fed Cup triumphs, a final appearance in singles at the Roland Garros and a career high ranking of five, Sara Errani has carved out a niche of her own in tennis. While she may not be a household name, but her CV is still highly impressive.
And at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Friday, the affable Italian came close to winning two matches on the trot for the second successive day. After having fought the windy conditions as well as the gutsy American Madison Brengle in the singles quarterfinal, she teamed up with Carla Suarez Navarro to book a place in the doubles semis on Thursday.
On Friday, she came tantalisingly close to repeating the heroics. Despite playing two tough matches on Thursday, the 28-year-old player showed no signs of fatigue under the Dubai sun on Friday afternoon as she beat rising Ukrainian star Elina Svitolina 6-4 6-4 in the first semifinal.
Later in the evening, she returned to the centre court with her Spanish teammate Navarro. And they found themselves in commanding position in the doubles semifinal against Darija Jurak of Croatia and Chia-Jung Chuang of Taipei at 5-3 in the second set after taking first at 7-5. But Jurak and Chuang staged a stunning comeback to deny Errani a golden chance to win two titles in Dubai with a 5-7 7-6 10-7 win.
The Italian may have lost that doubles battle in the end, but her ability to keep fighting for every point won her many a heart at the Dubai Tennis Stadium. That ability to weather any storm came to the fore earlier in her straight sets win over Svitolina. The Italian was simply too strong for her younger opponent - even though she had less time to recover from Thursday's singles and doubles duels.
The pint-sized baseliner from Bologna showed her variations from the back of the court against an opponent who has recently hired legendary Belgian Justine Henin as her coaching consultant. Svitolina was highly impressive in her win over the hard-hitting American CoCo Vandeweghe in a fascinating three-setter in Thursday's quarterfinal.
But Errani was too smart for the young Ukrainian on Friday. In a battle that produced some amazing rallies, Errani was able to turn defence into attack in the blink of an eye. It was her ability to change gears effortlessly that caught the Ukrainian by surprise as Errani, despite being broken thrice in the match, never lost control as well as composure. Even when she was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, she found herself trailing 0-30. But as she so often does, she fought back to clinch the match, booking her place in the Dubai final for the second time in her career.
It was here in 2013 that she lost the final to two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. When the 24th edition of tournament started on February 15, few could have thought that Errani, whose current ranking is 22, would be in the final of a championship that had four of the top 10 players in the field. Remarkably, the experienced Italian is now the overwhelming favourite to win her first premier WTA title since June 2014.
rituraj@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai