Elina Svitolina remains on track to be only the third woman to win back-to-back WTA Dubai Duty Tennis Championships after reaching Saturday's final.
The No 1 seed put in her most impressive of the tournament so far as she convincingly defeated Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-3 on Centre Court.
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Svitolina, the world No 4, won a first set that had six breaks of serve in total, before recovering from going an early break down in the second set to bounce back to set up a showdown on Saturday with Daria Kasatkina, who earlier on Friday had shocked Garbine Muguruza in the first semi-final.
Only Justine Henin and Venus Williams have previously won successive Dubai titles in the event's history.
Svitolina told reporters post-match that she was relieved the match had not gone to a third set.
"I'm happy that it was in two sets because before we had such a tough battles," she said. "Physically it was very tough. Yeah, I'm very happy that I saved little bit more energy on my next opponent."
Of facing Kasatkina on Saturday, she added: "She had tough road to the final. I will just try to focus on my game, you know, as I did before. She produced a good game. But I will try to be ready and, yeah, just take the next opponent on."
