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In confident mood and high spirits

Caroline Wozniacki had little time to reflect on her first WTA Tour title in the Gulf region as, no sooner than it had been achieved, she was off in search of a second.

The 20-year-old Dane, who reclaimed the world number one ranking on Monday, jetted off to Doha for this week’s Qatar Ladies Open barely hours after beating Svetlana Kuznetsova convincingly 6-1, 6-3 at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Sunday evening.

Still, she will have travelled in confident mood and high spirits after her all-conquering displays at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where she emerged victorious without dropping a single set and for the loss of just 25 games across five matches overall.

“It’s always great to win tournaments and I’m very happy with this one title from the year so far – the 13^th of my career to date,” the Odense-born professional enthused in her post-match press conference prior to flying off to the airport.

“For me to stand here as the winner of the tournament, it’s a great feeling. I have the confidence, I know I’m playing well and the hard training is paying off, so I’m really pleased.

“I like playing and winning matches, so it’s important for me to win. I hate to lose.”Suffering defeat never really looked on the cards against Kuznetsova either for Wozniacki, who was buoyed by the way she acquitted herself throughout a comfortable night’s work.

“I felt really good out there,” the 2008 Doha quarter-finalist explained.

“I was hitting the ball clean and well and I could really stay aggressive. I knew I had to as well because, if Svetlana is allowed to dictate, she’s just too strong.

“So, it was very important for me to keep her moving and stay pretty close to the baseline.”

Another aspect of Wozniacki’s strategy appeared to be to maintain the rallies on Kuznetsova’s backhand wing, thereby not allowing her opponent sufficient opportunities to rattle in heavily-hit winners on the opposite flank.

“When I saw that she was pulled out wide and she had one hand on the backhand side, I knew she wouldn’t be able to hit a really great shot, so then I came forward a bit,” she said.

“I just do what I feel like on court; if I feel like staying back, I do that and if I see an opportunity to come to the net, I do that. It’s all about feeling and I felt a couple of times that I needed to come to the net to finish off the points.”

She certainly latched onto any slight chance to get Kuznetsova off balance or out of position and was characteristically clinical with anything dropping too short.

Wozniacki was delighted too with the way she handled a mini-revival by Kuznetsova in latter stages of the second set, adding: “I was just thinking to myself: ‘Don’t wait for the error. You have to go for it yourself.’

“She began to play really well, she didn’t give up and started to hang in there a little bit more and wait for the right shots. “For me, I was like: ‘Okay, if she turns this around, she needs to do that. I will not give her any free points, but I will not let her dictate as well. I will just keep my game plan.’”

alex@khaleejtimes.com