The second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka qualified for the third round of the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a prize pool of 2.788 million USD. The Belarusian tennis player defeated Lauren Davis (USA) by 2-0 (6:0, 6:1) in a match that lasted only 61 minutes.
Aryna Sabalenka started the match with 9 consecutive games, closing the first set on zero and giving only one game to her opponent in the second. Thus, the world’s No 2 qualified for the third round, where will face the last year’s champion and 13th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia), who defeated the Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova by 2-0 (6:2, 6:0) in only 56 minutes.
Shelby Rogers (USA) lost to the Romanian qualifier Ana Bogdan by 0-2 (6:7, 3:6), while the Chinese player Qinwen Zheng walkover the match with Liudmila Samsonova (Russia).
The 15th-seeded Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) also advanced to the third round of the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships after defeating Amanda Anisimova by 2-1 (4:6, 6:4, 7:6) and in the next round will face Madison Keys (USA).
The third-seeded Jessica Pegula (USA) had a hard match versus the Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova but eventually won by 2-1 (6:2, 5:7, 6:1) in match that lasted more than 2 hours.
Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) defeated Yulia Putintseva (kazahstan) by 2-0 (6:4, 6:4) and also advanced to the third round.