Elina Svitolina successfully defends title in Dubai

Top seed Elina Svitolina lost just four games as she defended her Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title against Daria Kasatkina.

The 23-year-old Ukrainian joined Justine Henin and Venus Williams in winning back-to-back titles in Dubai with a 6-4 6-0 victory over the unseeded Russian.

Speaking on court afterwards, she said: “Coming into this week, I didn’t really have any expectations. I was just trying to start a new tournament and take one match at a time, and here I am again holding this trophy.

“It’s a really amazing week.”

Svitolina broke in the fifth game of the first set and never looked back as her 20-year-old opponent, who had twice saved five match points on her way to the final, wilted.

She claimed the decisive second set without losing a game, despite Kasatkina taking her to deuce at 4-0.

Slovakia’s Dominka Cibulkova will play Belgian Alison van Uytvanck in Sunday’s final at the Hungarian Ladies Open in Budapest after both progressed with the minimum of fuss.

Cibulkova beat German Mona Barthel 6-3 6-2 in her semi-final before Van Uytvanck saw off the Slovakian’s compatriot Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4 6-2.