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Caroline Wozniacki took just 75 minutes to defeat 16th seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3 in the final of the Dubai championships on Sunday.
The top-seeded Dane had never advanced beyond the third round of the tournament before, but she swept through the draw without the loss of a set to win her 13th career title.
By defeating Shahar Peer in the quarter-finals she re-captured the top ranking she had surrendered to Kim Clijsters just the week before and she is expected to hold on to that ranking for at least the next four weeks.
"I felt really good out there today," Wozniacki told reporters.
"I felt like I was hitting the ball well, clean, and I could really stay aggressive today. I knew I had to because if Svetlana is allowed to stay and dictate, she's just too strong," she added.
There were far too many errors from Kuznetsova to make the match anything other than mediocre. She failed to reproduce the kind of performance earlier in the week that suggested she was capable of returning towards the top of the rankings.
Wozniacki had little to do but keep the ball in play as Kuznetsova often missed by a wide margin.
The Dane broke her opponent at love to lead 5-2 in the second set, but failed to convert either of two match points before Kuznetsova broke.
But she closed out the match on her third match point as she broke Kuznetsova's serve for the seventh time.
It is the third time that Kuznetsova has been defeated in the final following losses in 2004 to Justine Henin and Elena Dementieva in 2008.
Despite her defeat the Russian, who finished last season ranked outside of the top 20 for the first time since 2003, is projected to rise to 13 when the new rankings are published on Monday.
"I just didn't play well. I did too many unforced errors. She played her basic game and didn't have to do much," she said.
Photograph: Getty Images
