Jelena Ostapenko's remarkable week of comebacks at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships continued with a 2-6, 7-6(0), 6-0 victory over Simona Halep in the semifinals. She will play Veronika Kudermetova, who advanced after qualifier Marketa Vondrousova withdrew due to a righ adductor injury, in the final.

Ostapenko has beaten a Grand Slam champion in all four rounds en route to the final, previously taking out Sofia Kenin, Iga Swiatek and Petra Kvitova. She needed a third-set tiebreak to edge the latter two, and coming into the semifinals had spent six hours on court compared to Halep's three hours and 40 minutes.

However, the Latvian was once again supremely clutch as she pulled off another unlikely escape - one reminiscent at times of her comeback win over Halep in the 2017 Roland Garros final, which she won 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 from a break down in both the second and third sets.

The result puts Ostapenko into her 11th career final, sixth at WTA 500 level or above, and third in the past nine months after a title run in Eastbourne and a runner-up showing in Luxembourg last year.

Match management: Ostapenko began by hitting herself off the court, and ended by hitting Halep off the court. During the first set, the World No.21 deployed a first-strike strategy that was extreme even by her own standards, and ended it with a ratio of nine winners to 20 unforced errors. Halep did not need to hit a winner off the ground to seal it in 27 minutes, though three aces from the Romanian aided her cause.

Any suspicion that Ostapenko's first-set performance was related to fatigue was put to rest in the second. Her radar was still in-and-out: a flurry of winners took her to 3-0, but she was pegged back to 3-3 after the errors returned. As the set reached its climax, Halep faltered, with two double faults offering up two set points at 6-5 - but Ostapenko squandered both chances with netted groundstrokes.

The 24-year-old did not let this bother her. Instead, she shook off that disappointment to steamroll through the rest of the match with a glorious display of sustained, uninhibited power tennis. From 6-6, Ostapenko won 27 of the next 34 points to whitewash Halep in the tiebreak and race into a 5-0 third-set lead.

Halep, the 2020 Dubai champion, held two points to avoid the bagel in the last game, but Ostapenko would not be denied, and sealed her second match point with a service winner after 1 hour and 36 minutes.

By the numbers: Ostapenko ultimately tallied 36 winners to 49 unforced errors, though across the last two sets those numbers were 27 winners to 20 unforced errors. Halep, who kept her unforced error count to three in the first set, saw that number rise to 17 in the next two - including eight double faults in total.

Also crucial for Ostapenko was her first serve percentage, which increased from 57% in the first set to 72% in the second and 75% in the third.

Throughout the match, Halep found only three winners off the ground, two of which were return winners in the last game.

In Ostapenko's words: "I knew I have to play aggressive no matter what the score is," Ostapenko said afterwards. "She really doesn't like to play against players who are playing aggressive and take time away from her.

"[At first] my legs were, like, standing. They were not moving in the first set. That's why I was missing. When I changed that, everything changed. I don't think I really needed Plan B for this match. I think Plan A had to work well, and that's what happened the second and third sets."

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Kudermetova reaches second final of 2022 via walkover

Kudermetova has now reached two finals this season - without yet needing to hit a ball in a semifinal. At Melbourne Summer Set 1, she received a walkover from Naomi Osaka in last four.

"The injury started a few days ago and I've played so many matches here which has aggravated [it]," Vondrousova said in a statement. "I'm really sad to leave the tournament this way but I've still enjoyed a great week and proud of how I've played. I will travel to Doha and see how the injury is. I've played six amazing matches this week having come through qualifying and proud of my performances so it's unfortunate this has happened. Health is the priority for me."

No.31-ranked Kudermetova will contest her fourth career final and third at WTA 500 level or above. She holds a 1-3 record in title matches compared to Ostapenko's 4-6 record. Despite being generational peers, both born in 1997, this will be a first-time encounter between the pair, who have not faced each other at pro level, junior level or Tennis Europe U14 and U16 level.