Off the wire
• Bayern overcome Darmstadt, Berlin and Wolfsburg share spoils in German Bundesliga  • Portuguese soccer league standings  • Portuguese soccer league results/fixtures  • Barca win in Las Palmas to extend lead at top of La Liga  • 1st LD: Hillary Clinton wins Nevada Democratic caucuses  • Urgent: Hillary Clinton wins Nevada Democratic caucuses: local media projections  • 4 female cyclists challenge conservative traditions in Gaza  • Volvo Car Group recalls 59,000 cars  • 1st LD: Syria's Assad says ready for cease-fire  • 3rd LD Writethru: 3 Indian para-military troopers killed in militant attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir  
You are here: 　 Home

Errani wins by a mile Dubai Tennis Open final against Strycova

Xinhua, February 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

In the most one-sided final in the 24-year history of the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Italy's Sara Errani was on Saturday victorious over Czech Barbora Strycova 6-0, 6-2.

Errani took the first set within half a hour. "Yes, I was surprised about winning the match so fast and so straight, but Barbora also had not her best day. It is amazing that I won," said the Italian who cashed in 465,480 U. S. dollars prize money.

Errani, ranked 22nd in the world, played from the beginning at full-speed and left her Czech opponent little chance to resist her fast shots from corner to corner and her swift swaps from the baseline to the net.

After one hour and six minutes amid 21 degrees Celsius outdoor temperatures on Saturday evening in the Gulf Arabian sheikhdom, the match was decided and Errani, who was overwhelmed by emotions and relieve, ran to her coach Pablo Lozano and embraced him, shedding tears of happiness.

As both players are 1.64 meter tall, they focused also on tricking each other by playing surprise slice shots.

Twenty-nine-year-old Strycova, ranked 41st, appeared exhausted after her three-set semi-final win over France's Caroline Garcia on Friday.

"This was truly not my day. All went wrong during this match, but I am also happy about my performance during the tournament as a whole. "

At 0-2 in the second set, a desperate Strycova started weeping which the several thousand spectators in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium replied with loud applause to motivate her.

Until that time nearly everything that could go wrong, went wrong for the Plzen-born who lives in the United States. At stand 1-4, the Czech seemed to have lost her nerves, but managed to win one more game.

"The support of the spectators was indeed great. I am most thankful to all of them and I also heard many Czech fans in the audience, that lifted my mood," she said.

Errani agreed, saying that "the atmosphere in Dubai and the hard court are very good."

"I have no specific objectives for the rest of 2016, you never know what will come and I do not think too much about it," said the 28-year-old Bologna-born who will play the Qatar Total Open in Doha which runs from February 21 to 27. Endit