DUBAI (Reuters) - Agnieszka Radwanska broke into the world's top five for the first time after beating Germany's Julia Goerges 7-5 6-4 in the final of the Dubai Championships on Saturday.
The 22-year-old Pole will move up to fifth in the world rankings when the new standings are released on Monday after claiming her eighth WTA singles title.
Trailing 5-4 in the first set, Radwanska won seven of the next eight games to go a set and 4-1 up in the second, ultimately sealing a comfortable win.
"In the important moments I think I was just more consistent," Radwanska told reporters.
"Her forehand it's a very big weapon. You never know what to expect - it's going so fast, and sometimes I couldn't even move to the right way and the ball was already behind me.
"I just stayed calm until the end."
Radwanska had won their only previous meeting, routing Goerges 6-1 6-1 in the last 16 of this year's Australian Open and the big-hitting German seemed overawed at first, losing her serve in the opening game.
She broke back in the eighth game to make it 4-4 but serving at 5-5 her aggressive approach backfired.
She had four chances to serve out the game, but fluffed them all to give the dogged Radwanska a break point which the Pole converted when Goerges took on a volley mid-court and blasted it wide when she could have let it bounce first.
Radwanska served out to take the first set 7-5 and moved ahead in the second as her opponent's errors piled up.
Goerges provided some late resistance when she clawed back one break of serve and then had a point to make it 5-5 when Radwanska served for the match.
Unfortunately for her she just missed a forehand and Radwanska sealed victory on her second match point when her opponent shanked a backhand.
"She doesn't give you anything," Goerges told reporters afterwards. "When she does a few mistakes, it's at 15-all or 15-love, but not on the important moments."
"But I'm not disappointed because it was a big step in the right direction."
(Reporting by Matt Smith, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Martyn Herman)
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