Aslan Karatsev defeats Lloyd Harris to win Dubai tennis open

  DUBAI - Aslan Karatsev defeated qualifier Lloyd Harris 6-3 6-2 in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Saturday (March 20) to claim the first ATP Tour title of his career. He is the first Russian to win the prestigious title, after Marat Safin in 2001 and Mikhail Youzhny in 2007 and 2010 both finished as runner-up, and it is the first time since the series started in 2009 that a wild card and a qualifier were meeting in an ATP 500 final. He is the first wild card to compete in the Dubai final since Thomas Muster in 1997, and he joins Muster and Wayne Ferreira in 1995 as the third wild card to win the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title in the tournament's 29-year history. Karatsev has not lost this year to anyone outside of the top five, falling to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open and to Dominic Thiem in Doha, and he was never under any real pressure against Harris as early breaks in each set gave him an invaluable cushion. A break for 2-0 gave Karatsev the perfect start and, after Harris failed to take advantage of a break point back in the next game, Karatsev kept the pressure on, holding three break points to lead 5-1. Harris held off that challenge, but Karatsev went on to take the set. In the second set, Karatsev broke to lead 1-0, held two break points to lead 3-0 and after holding off a break point to hold for 4-2 he broke Harris again and served out the next game at love to claim victory in just 75 minutes. "I'm really happy with my performance. I'm really happy with my game at the beginning of the year, to play Australia semi-final, to show a great level," said Karatsev, who on Friday earned the biggest victory of his career, ending the 23- match ATP 500 win streak of world number eight Andrey Rublev. "And then after the Australian Open to keep going, practising hard and I arrived here and showed great belief, good game. In the final everyone is more nervous but I tried to keep the (game) plan," he added. Despite his defeat, Harris was still feeling upbeat about what he had achieved during the best week of his career. "Today was a really difficult match. He came out firing and broke me in the first game and he caught me a little bit by surprise," said Harris, who is the first qualifier to advance past the quarter-finals in the history of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and who was attempting to become the first winner from South Africa since Wayne Ferreira in 1995. "(But) There are so many positives to take from this week. Aslan today was just too good but sometimes it happens like that and I'm just going to take all the big ups from the week and take it into the next tournament,” Harris said. ICA/Expat Media
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