Dubai: Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki feels she could walk away with her head held high even after going down to Elena Svitolina in the women’s final late on Saturday.
Chasing a second crown in Dubai, the Danish player went down 4-6, 2-6 in an hour and 28 minutes as Svitolina landed her sixth, and first-ever major title, on the WTA Tour.
“I think I’m playing great tennis. I’m excited for the rest of the season. Hopefully I can stay healthy and that’s the main thing,” Wozniacki reflected after the defeat.
“I can take a lot of positives with me from this week and move forward. I’m hoping for a good season,” the 26-year-old added.
After two meetings between the two, the record now stands 2-0 in favour of Svitolina. The first time they met was in Miami last season where the Ukrainian saved three match-points to win in three sets. “I’m going to take a few days off and start practicing mid-next week and start getting ready for Indian Wells,” Wozniacki said.
Dubai’s latest champion Svitolina, who was scheduled to leave for Kuala Lumpur late on Sunday, was thrilled with her first-ever Premier 5 crown after five smaller titles she won earlier. “But of course those small titles, it was just building, and then it was like, ‘come on, you need to try to take those good things from small tournaments that you win and play very consistent into the big tournaments and big matches’,” Svitolina said.
“The main thing lies in the consistency. So I’m very happy now that I could play a great week, some very solid tennis. Of course, there have been some downs, but the way I recovered, I’m really happy the way I did it,” the 22-year-old added.
Wozniacki, meanwhile, is in for a relatively easy time till the US Open as she needs to defend a mere 145 points. “If I play this well as I have, then it’s just a matter of time before I really make that big step up the rankings. I have already done a big step these two weeks, getting closer to where I want to be and I think that’s key,” she added.
“Basically I have nothing to defend until the US Open, so I guess that’s the positive thing about last year,” she smiled.
