DUBAI, February 25, 2018

Top seed Elina Svitolina from Ukraine became the first player to defend the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title in eight years, clinching her second WTA title of 2018 with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over unseeded Russian Daria Kasatkina in Sunday’s singles final.

The 23-year-old Odessa native saved the only break point she faced, capitalizing on four of her own to prevail after one hour and 10 minutes. Svitolina, who now has 299 career wins, is the third player in the 18-year history of the event in the desert to successfully defend her title, after Justine Henin in 2004 and Venus Williams in 2010.

“It feels great,” Svitolina was happy. “I am very pleased with the performance throughout the week. When I had to play well, I played well, important moments. I was serving good, returning well, getting lots of balls back. It was solid performance, I would say. Okay, maybe not amazing tennis, but I was pretty solid. It was enough.”

.@ElinaSvitolina has a special message for all of her fans after capturing her second consecutive @DDFTennis title! pic.twitter.com/JDSsjm5RuO

— WTA (@WTA) 24. Februar 2018