DUBAI: Sara Errani defeated Barbora Strycova 6-0, 6-2 on Saturday to win the Dubai Tennis Championships three years after first reaching the final.
The Italian will rise back into the top 20 as a result of her comprehensive victory in 66 minutes, according to WTA calculations.
Strycova made a stand at the end, saving four match points over the last two games before drilling a forehand out to lose for the sixth time in seven meetings with Errani.
Errani, who won the first eight games, lost the 2013 final here to Petra Kvitrova. She now owns nine career titles.
Del Potro in semis
Injury-nagged 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro advanced to the ATP Delray Beach Open semifinals on Friday by defeating French fifth seed Jeremy Chardy 6-2, 6-3.
In his comeback event after sitting out for nearly a year, the 27-year-old Argentine wildcard entrant earned a Saturday berth against 61st-ranked Sam Querrey, who rallied to dispatch fellow American Tim Smyczek 6-7 (1/7), 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.
Bulgarian fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov will face American Rajeev Ram in the other semifinal. Ram, ranked 89th, won their only prior meeting at Atlanta in 2011.
Del Potro, ranked 1,042nd in the world after missing most of the 2014 and 2015 seasons with a left wrist injury, underwent surgery last June and had not played an ATP match since last March until this week.
The South American standout served well and was effective with his two-handed backhand, attacking 30th-ranked Chardy’s second serves and winning 14 of those 22 points over the 80-minute match.
Del Potro also won a 2012 Cincinnati quarterfinal from the Frenchman, but Chardy took a five-set triumph in the third round of the 2013 Australian Open.
Del Potro has won both career meetings with Querrey, taking the 2009 Auckland final and a 2011 Valencia quarterfinal without dropping a set.
Querrey seeks his eighth career ATP title and the first since Los Angeles in 2012.
Smyczek dominated the first tie-breaker and broke when Querrey served for the second set in the 10th game, only to see his rival jump ahead 5-1 in the second tie-breaker on the way to forcing a third set.
Ram rallied to beat Germany’s Benjamin Becker 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Ram seeks a third career ATP crown after winning on Newport grass in 2009 and last year.
Nadal in last four
Former world No.1 Rafael Nadal reached the Rio Open semifinals without even hitting a ball Friday as Aleksandr Dolgopolov withdrew injured from their last-eight tie.
Nadal is playing at the low-key clay court event in a bid to find his form ahead of a tilt at an unprecedented 10th French Open crown in June.
The 29-year-old Spaniard has dropped to No.5 in the world after an injury-hit 2015 and suffered a shock semifinal defeat to Austria’s Dominic Thiem in the semifinals last week at Buenos Aires, where he was defending champion.
Ukraine’s Dolgopolov was forced to withdraw due to a right shoulder injury.
Nadal will next play in Saturday’s semifinals against Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas, who defeated Argentina’s Federico Delbonis 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
