The fifth-seeded Ons Jabeur (Tunisia) withdrew from the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a prize fund of 2.3 million USD. The three-time Grand Slam finalist has a right knee injury. Her place in the main draw will be taken by Cristina Bucsa (Spain).
Three of the seeds were eliminated in the first round of the competition. American teenager Ashlyn Krueger eliminated 16th-seeded Caroline Garcia (France) after 2-1 (3:6, 6:3, 6:3) in nearly two hours on the court. For her, this is the first success of her career in the main scheme of the WTA 1000 tournament.
The Italian Jasmine Paolini defeated the the 11th-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia (Brazil) with 2-1 (4:6, 6:4, 6:0), and the 14th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova (Russia) lost to Magdalena Frech (Poland) with -2 (6:7, 3:6).
In other matches of the tournament, Emma Navarro (USA) defeated Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) by 2-1 (4:6, 7:5, 6:4), while Sloane Stephens (USA) won against Clara Burel (France) by 2-1 (6:4, 1:6, 6:2). The Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea prevailed over 2020 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin (USA) by 2-0 (6:3, 7:6), and Elisabetta Cocciaretto (Italy) started her participation at the tournament with a victory over Elise Mertens (Belgium) by 2-1 (1:6, 6:3, 7:6).
