Garbine Muguruza ended the season with his first WTA title in nearly two years at the Dubai Tax Free Tennis Championships.
The Spaniard has been the most consistent player on tour so far in 2021 after reaching the finals in Melbourne and Doha, and may have added a third grand slam title at the Australian Open. if she had taken one of two game points against Naomi ultimately Osaka in the fourth round.
The relief was seen as Muguruza ended a 7-6 (6) 6-3 victory over Czech surprise Barbora Krejcikova to secure her first title from Monterrey in April 2019.
Krejcikova, better known as a double player, competed in her second singles final at the round stage and hung hard in the first set to keep up with Muguruza.
The ninth seed led 4-2 and three points were set on Krejcikova’s service at 6-5 only for the Czechs to push a tie-break.
Krejcikova had one set point but Muguruza, who was watched on a mobile phone by her coach Conchita Martinez after the former Wimbledon champion’s coronavirus bout, saved him with a clinical hand and pulled him away in the second set.