TIL Desk Sports/ Top seed Simona Halep came back from a set down for the third time in the tournament to beat Kazakhstan’s rising star Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) to win the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for the second time on Saturday. In a battle that lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours, the match came down to a tiebreak where two shots that went agonisingly wide for Rybakina eventually decided the title in front of a noisy crowd that constantly chanted Halep’s name.
Romanian Halep, who first won the title in Dubai in 2015, and 20-year-old Rybakina had nearly identical numbers with respect to winners and unforced errors, and they both broke each other four times to underline how close the contest was. Top seed Dominic Thiem missed a chance to pass Roger Federer and become the world’s third-ranked player when he was knocked out of the Rio Open by Italian qualifier Gianluca Mager in a rain delayed quarter-final match on Saturday.
Mager, 25, completed the victory 7-6(4), 7-5 after leading 2-1 in the second set when play was halted on Friday. “It’s unbelievable,” the Italian said. “For me, it was a dream only to play with him. Now that I beat him, it is a dream. He is a great, unbelievable player… I am very emotional.” The tournament was Thiem’s first since reaching the Australian Open final last month.
