Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Marie Bouzkova at the start of the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) defeated Marie Bouzkova (Czech republic) by 2-0 (6:4, 6:3) to qualify for the second round of the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The Russian tennis player recorded three breaks and two aces to close the match in an hour and a half.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova started strongly the match and was close for breaking the serve of Marie Bouzkova already in the second game of the first set, but the Czech tennis player saved two break points. Marie Bouzkova even reached a break in the fifth game of the set and took a lead by 4:2, but the well-experienced Russian player won four games in a row with two break to win the set by 6:4.

In the second set, the match was running equally with both players having their chances for break. However, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made a break for 5:3, which proved to be enough to win the set by 6:3 and the match.

In the next round, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will face her compatriot Liudmila Samsonova, who eliminated Viktoriya Tomova (Bulgaria) by 2-0 (7:6, 6:3).

In the other matches from the first round, the Russian tennis stars Anastasia Potapova and Veronika Kudermetova advanced ahead after defeating in three sets Lin Zhu (China) and Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine), respectively.

Lucia Bronzetti (Italy) eliminated Daria Kasatkina (Russia) after 2-1 (7:6, 4:6, 7:5), while Paula Badosa retired in the second set of her match versus Lulu Sun (Switzerland) due to injury