Svitolina in Dubai Duty Free tennis meet semis

Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, on Thursday, prevailed over Japanese wild card Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-4, earning a place in the semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, a hard-court WTA event here.

Defending champion Svitolina needed one hour and 22 minutes to seal her second win over the Japanese player, in her four career matches.

Osaka struggled with the serve through the first set, losing all her service games, while she got on the scoreboard by breaking Svitolina’s serve twice.

READ: Eugenie Bouchard recalls locker room fall in lawsuit testimony

The top seed Svitolina saw her serve broken early in the second set, but at 4-2 down, Svitolina stormed back, winning four games in a row to finish off Osaka and book a place in the semifinals.

Eyeing her second title in 2018 following her success at the Brisbane International, Svitolina is to take on either third-seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic or former World No. 1 Angelique Kerber of Germany for a place in the final.