By Chris Oddo | Friday February 19, 2016
A wild week in Dubai will see two unlikely combatants duel for the title. Sara Errani and Barbora Strycova advanced on semifinal day, and each will bid for their first title of 2016 on Saturday.
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Errani was first to go through as she battled back from deficits in both sets to claim a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Elina Svitolina. Errani broke critically for a 4-3 lead in set one then served out the set to 15 to take the one set to love lead.
In the second set Svitolina broke for a 3-1 lead but Errani, steady as a brick wall, rallied to take five of the next six games, claiming the match when a Svitolina backhand sailed long on match point.
Errani, a runner-up in Dubai in 2013, will face Strycova for the seventh time in the final. The Italian has won five of six from the Czech, including the last four.
Strycova battled past Caroline Garcia in a see-saw encounter that featured ten breaks of serve and lasted two hours and 13 minutes.
The 29-year-old looked to be high-tailing to victory when she took six games on the trot to claim the opener and open up a 2-0 lead in set two, but a resilient Garcia claimed four straight games and eventually took the second set to force the decider.
But Strycova would increase her career record to 4-1 over Garcia when she broke for a 5-3 lead in set three and saved two break points in the next game before closing the match with a well-timed first ace of the evening.
“The last game I was like ‘Okay, pull something through,’ and I made three good serves,” said Strycova. “I kept telling myself play your game and go for it because you have nothing to lose.”
Errani and Strycova are both bidding for their first Premier-level titles on Saturday. The Italian has edged the Czech in all four of their tour-level meetings, including a victory last season in a third-set tiebreaker at Eastbourne.