Jessica Pegula defeats Elina Svitolina for Dubai title

No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula celebrated her birthday a few days early and defeated No. 6 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday to win the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

The decisive 72-minute victory gave Pegula her 10th career WTA Tour singles title, her first since last June in Bad Homburg, Germany, and her fourth at the WTA 1000 level. Pegula is on a streak of seven straight semifinal trips, but this is her first title in that stretch.

Pegula, who turns 32 on Tuesday, is just the third American to win the tournament in the United Arab Emirates, joining Lindsay Davenport (2005) and Venus Williams (2009, 2010 and 2014).

"I couldn't ask for a better birthday present. I'm just super proud of myself. I had to play at a very high level, it was awesome," Pegula said in her on-court interview. "I feel like when you can get off to a quick start, that eases the nerves a little bit."

Pegula opened the championship match with three straight service breaks against Svitolina, who double faulted five times and won only 64.1% of the points (25 of 39) on her first serve.

Svitolina led 2-1 in the second set before Pegula recorded the only service break of the set in the fifth game. Pegula, who saved two of three break points in the match, finished off Svitolina with an ace on her third match point.

"Speechless after that fight. I was really trying to put myself out there, and I was playing like there is no tomorrow, just trying to put all the effort in," Pegula said.

The breezy victory was in sharp contrast to Friday's semifinal win against fellow American Amanda Anisimova, when she rallied from a set and a break down to win 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.

"Mentally, I think, especially the match yesterday, I was down a set and 3-1, and I fought back, which made me feel free today," Pegula said. "I trusted the things we've been working on and it paid off."

Pegula improved to 6-3 against Svitolina, a head-to-head series involving two of the best players who have yet to win a Grand Slam singles crown.

Svitolina, 31, who won the Dubai title in 2017 and 2018, fell short of her 20th singles title after another strong week. She won the Auckland Classic in January and reached the semifinals of the Australian Open.