Karinskaya, who defeated world No. 1 Swiatek and qualified for the women's singles championship match at the Dubai Open as a qualifier, was defeated 6-7 by Paulini in the first set today, missing out on the title, allowing Paulini to win her first WTA 1000 women's singles title in her career.
The 28-year-old Italian Paulini, who lost to Kalinskaya in the fourth round of the Australian Open only last month, not only won her second WTA Tour title in her career, but also confirmed that the women's singles world ranking rose to the top 20 for the first time.
I'm glad I believe I can win every game. Paulini said: I remember the first match of the week, I lost the first set and fell behind one service game in the second set, but now I'm here and I'm winning the title, it's unbelievable. 」
At the beginning of this season, the Italian players shone brightly, in addition to Paulini, Sinner has also won two consecutive titles in the Australian Open and Rotterdam Open in the two tournaments he has participated in so far this season. However, there was also bad news in Italian tennis yesterday, when the International Tennis Integrity Organization announced that Andrea Rita, a 23-year-old Italian tennis player ranked 1,712 in the world, will be banned for 15 months for violating tennis anti-corruption rules four times between 2018 and 2000, including betting on tennis matches.
Karinskaya, who lost in today's championship match, is also expected to move up from 40th to 26th in the world rankings. The 25-year-old started her career on the WTA Tour by beating ninth seed and Linz Women's Open champion Ostapenko at the end of January, while third seed Gauff and Swiatek advanced to the title match.