DUBAI: Top-seeded Simona Halep earned the tenth title of her career and made herself a double champion in the Arabian Gulf by capturing the Dubai Open with a tenacious and skilful 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) win over Karolina Pliskova on Saturday.

The Romanian will defend the Doha title next week in good spirits after proving too mobile and tactically too flexible for the 22-year-old Pliskova, who has served the most aces on the WTA Tour this year — now 149 — but missed two break point chances early on.

They proved costly.

Halep, who had shown herself a great fighter by coming back from close to defeat to Ekaterina Makarova in the quarter-finals, took nine points in a row to snatch the first set.

She recovered from a break down in the second, and overcame the disappointment of missing a match point in both the tenth and twelfth games, eventually closing it out in from 3-4 down in the tie-break.

Monfils to take on Simon in Open 13 final

In Marseille, France, Local favorite Gael Monfils maintained his perfect record against fourth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the final of the Open 13 where he will meet fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon.

The seventh-seeded Monfils, who also beat the Spaniard in the second round last week in Rotterdam, put Bautista Agut under pressure with excellent return games, and converted four of his five break points to produce an easy 6-4, 6-2 win on Saturday.

Simon took a slower start against Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine and rallied to a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory after hitting nine aces.

It will be the first all-French final in the coastal city since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Michael Llodra six years ago.

Monfils, who also had nine aces to extend his record against Bautista Agut to 3-0, will be chasing his first title since winning in Montpellier last year. He has a poor 5-16 record in ATP tournament finals but has won three of his five titles in France.

“My coach gave me good tactics and I played differently compared to last week,” Monfils said. “Today I kept it simple and it helped me playing a big match.”

Monfils, who has decided against playing for France against Germany in the first round of the Davis Cup next month on the advice of his coach Jan de Witt to reduce his schedule, has yet to lose a set.

“It’s been a while since I’ve played good tennis here,” said Monfils, who never progressed beyond the quarterfinals in Marseille in six previous appearances. “Hopefully I’ll be able to win another title in France.”

The 17th-ranked Simon raised his game following the loss of the opening set and made a decisive break at love in the eighth game of the second set. He then raced to a 5-2 lead in the decider with a superb crosscourt forehand pass before closing out the match.

Simon, the 2007 champion, is also advised by de Witt. He will play the final in Marseille for the second time and bid for a 12th title. He leads Monfils 4-1 in their head to heads.