Last year’s champion Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) kicked off her title defense at the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a prize pool of 2.788 million USD.
The 13th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko defeated the qualifier Katarina Zavatska (Ukraine) by 2-0 (6:1, 6:4) and will play against Linda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic) in the second round.
Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea eliminated the 11th-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia (Brazil) by 2-1 (4:6, 7:6, 7:5) in 3:29 hours, which was the longest match in women’s tennis since the start of 2023. Sorana Cîrstea saved two match points in the tiebreak of the second set, and in the third she overcame a deficit of 4:5 and with three consecutive games reached a turnaround and the ultimate success.
Anhelina Kalinina (Ukraine) needed 3:03 hours to beat the 10th-seeded Russian player Veronika Kudermetova (Russia) by 2-1 (6:3, 5:7, 7:5) to advance. In the next round, she will meet her compatriot Dayana Yastremska, who eliminated Alize Cornet (France) by 2-0 (6:2, 6:3).
In other matches from today’s program, Ana Bogdan (Romania) defeated Laura Siegemund (Germany) with 2-0 (7:5, 6:3), while Karolína Muchova (Czech Republic) won against Bernarda Pera (USA) by 2-0 (6:1, 6:4), and in full Czech clash Karolina Pliskova beat Marketa Vondrousova by 2-0 (6:3, 6:4).
The 15th-seeded Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) qualified for the second round after success over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) with 2-0 (6:3, 7:5).
American Lauren Davis eliminated Jil Teichmann (Switzerland) by 2-1 (6:4, 4:6, 6:3), and Yulia Putintseva (Kazakhstan) won against Petra Martic (Croatia) by 2-1 (6:4, 0:6, 6:2).
Shelby Rogers (USA) defeated her compatriot Claire Liu (USA) with 2-0 (6:4, 6:4) and in the second round, she will face the Romanian Ana Bogdan.
In the late match, Australian Open finalist and 9th-seeded Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) prevailed over Canada’s Bianca Andreescu by 2-0 (6:3, 6:4) in 1:32 hours. Her next opponent will be Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic), who yesterday won against Sofia Kenin (USA) by 2-0 (6:1, 6:1).
