She might have made short work of three of the top ten women seeds in tennis this week, but ultimately Anna Kalinskaya couldn’t contain a spirited performance by the Italian, Jasmine Paolini at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Paolini lost the first set in the final 4 – 6, but fought back to take the second and third sets 7 – 5 and 7 – 5 to become the second Italian to win a major tennis title since the beginning of the year.

Paolini also became the second-ever Italian champion in Dubai after Sara Errani in 2016. This was the second meeting between the Russian and Italian, having met once before in the fourth round of the Australian Open last month.  Kalinskaya was victorious in that encounter, but yesterday Paolini kept her grafting for two hours and 13 minutes, which ultimately proved to much.  In total, Paolini won 16 of the last 19 points, sprinting through the final four games.

This was the fourth WTA 1000 final to feature two unseeded players since the format was introduced in 2009. 

The WTA 1000 will now move to the United States with one of tennis’ biggest non-Grand Slam tournaments, Indian Wells, starting on Monday, the 4th of March.