Seventh seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine bundled out top seed Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) Friday to set up a final with Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark at the Dubai Tennis Championships. Wozniacki, former world No. 1 and currently 15th, took just 90 minutes to beat her Latvian opponent Anastasija Sevastova 6-3, 6-4 and move into the title match at the Aviation Club. Svitolina eliminated the world No. 2 Kerber, after a spirited performance. It was not a very exciting match, marred by the physical condition of Kerber and also by rain. The only good moment came in the final part of the second set, when, on the score of 3-5 for Svitolina, the Ukrainian tennis player served for the match, but was broken by Kerber, after a double fault. In the tiebreak, after a double fault of the German and a rasping winning-forehand, Svitolina closed the challenge. The Ukrainian tennis player thus reached her eighth career final, the second of 2017. Had Kerber won the tournament, she would have retaken the world No. 1 spot she held after winning the US Open in September, until Serena Williams wrestled it back in claiming Australian Open glory last month. Wozniacki lost to Czech Karolina Pliskova in the Doha final last weekend. "It's been a pretty good couple of weeks for me, I'm very happy with how I have been playing. Very happy how I have managed to get through these two weeks," Wozniacki said. "It's been very tiring mentally. The fact that I have just been staying in there and keep grinding, I'm kind of proud of that. "She definitely was a tricky opponent. I knew going into it that she was going to be difficult. She mixes the pace up. She really tries to break your rhythm. I was really pleased with how I was playing. I tried to stay aggressive and tried to mix it up, as well."
