WORLD number two and tournament favourite, Simona Halep has lived up to expectations triumphing in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships. The number one seed came from a set down against Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina to win 3-6 6-3 7-6 in two hours and 27 minutes.

Despite Halep starting the match strongly with a 76.7 per cent serving efficiency, the Romanian only won 65.2 per cent of her first serve points and was broken by her 20-year-old opponent. Rybakina on the other hand, was able to save both break point opportunities, while winning an elite 82.6 per cent of her first serve points. She looked vulnerable off her second serve, winning just five of 13 points, but her ability to win 40 per cent of her return points and break her highly touted opponent to win the first set.

Halep bounced back in the second set sensing she needed to lift, and created more break point opportunities for herself, breaking twice from seven chances. Rybakina still broke the world number two once, but Halep’s more consistent serve and more accurately her better work on return – she won 52.9 per cent of her return points saw her return the favour and level the score with both players having won their respective sets, 6-3.

The final set saw two highly competitive combatants going at it all the way to a deciding tiebreak with break point opportunities being capitalised upon. Haelp broke on both her chances against Rybakina’s serve, while the Kazakhstani talent broke twice from three chances. While Rybakina took on Halep’s serve with a 71.4 per cent record off the second serve, it was Halep’s ability to win 34.5 per cent off Rybakina’s serve that gave her confidence going into the tiebreaker. The result came down to the last couple of points, with Halep winning 7-5 in the tiebreak for a memorable victory in Dubai and handing the young gun her third runner-up result from four finals this year.