Iga Swiatek storms into Dubai Tennis Championships last-16, Caroline Garcia and Maria Sakkari beaten
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Updated 21/02/2023 at 18:24 GMT
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek dropped just two games against 2021 US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez in her first match of the Dubai Tennis Championships. Fresh from her success at the Qatar Open on Saturday, Swiatek is looking to make it back-to-back tournament wins in consecutive weeks. Elsewhere, Caroline Garcia and Maria Sakkari are both out of the first WTA 1000 event of the year.
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Iga Swiatek stormed into the last-16 of the Dubai Tennis Championships with a comprehensive 6-1 6-1 victory over Leylah Fernandez.
Swiatek picked up where she left off when she won the Qatar Open last week - her first title of 2023 - and is favourite to win the first WTA 1000 event of the season.
She will play Liudmila Samsonova, who had a walkover against Zheng Qinwen, in the next round on Wednesday.
“It wasn’t that easy for sure,” said Swiatek. “It was much tougher than the scoreline says. In the second set she had break points and I needed to go another level up.
“For sure, I didn’t have much time to get used to the conditions, I’m just happy I could play solid tennis.
“The courts are a bit faster than Doha, but similar to the Australian Open, so it’s fine.”
Swiatek, who has never been beyond the last-16 in Dubai, was put under pressure by Fernandez straight away but importantly held her opening service game, then showed her class by breaking her opponent at the first time of asking.
It was soon 4-0 although Fernandez got one break back in the fifth game. That was as good as it got for the 2021 US Open finalist though as Swiatek won the next two games and took the first set with an ace after 37 minutes.
Following some coaching in between sets, Fernandez raised her game but it wasn’t enough as Swiatek broke again at the start of the second.
At 2-1, Fernandez missed two break point chances and didn’t get another look-in as Swiatek won four games in a row to seal the match in style.
Garcia and Sakkari out
Elsewhere, an out-of-sorts Maria Sakkari was thrashed 6-1 6-2 in the biggest surprise of Tuesday, mainly due to the scoreline.
In another upset, Madison Keys made it four consecutive wins with a 7-5 6-4 victory against Caroline Garcia, whilst Jessica Pegula needed three sets to get the better of Viktoriya Tomova 6-2 5-7 6-1.
Newly-crowned Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka made her first outing since becoming a Grand Slam champion with an impressive 6-0 6-1 win over Lauren Davies. Sabalenka will play Jelena Ostapenko in the last-16 on Wednesday.
Coco Gauff beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4 6-0 and Elena Rybakina won 7-5 6-2 against Marie Bouzkova. Meanwhile Victoria Azarenka and Belinda Bencic both had tight wins but are also through in Doha.
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