Showing imperious form and that gorgeous forehand, Elina Svitolina waltzed into the record books on Saturday evening, becoming only the third player to defend the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title.

Svitolina, the world number four from Ukraine, was in no mood to let Daria Kasatkina show her incredible ability to fight back as she won 6-4 6-0 in just 70 minutes, leaving the rising Russian star in tears after the final point.

After having saved five match points in the tournament, Kasatkina failed to save her best tennis for the biggest match as Svitolina became only the third player after Justine Henin and Venus Williams to defend the Dubai title.

"It's amazing to come back here as defending champion and win the championship. But I want to congratulate Daria on her performance in the tournament. Definitely we are going to see more and more from her," Svitolina said.

Kasatkina, the youngest Dubai finalist since 2010, deserved every praise for the way she fought back from the most hopeless positions in the tournament, saving three match points against Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza in the semifinal and two match points against British seventh seeded Johanna Konta in the 179-minute round of 16 match - the fifth longest match of the tournament since 2008.

But on Saturday, the 20-year-old Russian just couldn't find her best tennis and her 34 unforced errors made the job even easier for Svitolina. "Congratulations to Elina on the amazing win. It was not my day today. But I had a great week. I enjoyed playing here so much and thanks to the fans for supporting me. I am leaving my heart out here," said Kasatkina, who would break into the top 20 of the WTA rankings on Monday.

After being broken in the seventh game of the first set, Kasatkina saved three set points in the ninth game before Svitolina took the first set in the 10th game. The Ukrainian then completely destroyed the Russian youngster in the second set.

The doubles final, on the other hand, produced a classic as the unseeded Chan Hao-Ching of Chinese Taipei and Zhaoxuan Yang of China overcame the challenge of the fourth seeds Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Shuai Peng of China (4-6 6-2 10-6).

Chan and Yang had beaten Alicja Rosolska of Poland and Abigail Spears of the US in straight sets (6-4 7-5) in the first doubles semifinal, while Hsieh and Peng stunned the top seeds and defending champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-1 3-6 10-7 in Friday's second semifinal.

On Saturday, Chan and Yang fought back in stunning fashion after losing the first set.

"I think we believed in ourselves. Yeah, I think that was the key. This is how we play and that's what makes us a good team," Chan said after the victory.

"We just told ourselves to keep going. I think we played good even in the first set. Both of us were playing very well. So we just needed to continue the momentum," Yang said. This was the 14th doubles title for Chan who now hopes to continue her partnership with Yang.

"I think we played aggressive from the start. We hope we can play more tournaments together," she said.

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