The top two seeds in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships lost a combined three games while cruising to second-round wins on Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates.
No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, the reigning French Open and U.S. Open champion, routed Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-1, 6-1, and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the reigning Australian Open champion, demolished the United States’ Lauren Davis 6-0, 6-1.
Swiatek was on court for 72 minutes three days after capturing the Qatar TotalEnergies Open championship in Doha. Sabalenka completed her day’s work in 59 minutes.
Third-seeded Jessica Pegula of the United States, who lost to Swiatek in the Doha final, got past Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 in the second round at Dubai.
American Madison Keys upset fourth-seeded Caroline Garcia of France 7-5, 6-4. Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic crushed sixth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-1, 6-2, and the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova knocked out seventh-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.
Fifth-seeded Coco Gauff of the United States, eighth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, 12th-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, 13th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 14th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia and 15th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus all advanced to the third round.
Merida Open Akron
Sloane Stephens finally won a match to open her fourth tournament of 2023, as the second-seeded American defeated French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-3 in the first round at Merida, Mexico.
Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, had lost her first-round matches at Auckland, New Zealand; Hobart, Australia; and the Australian Open to begin the year. Against Jeanjean, she saved both of the break points she faced and converted four of her five break opportunities.
Also moving on to the second round were fourth-seeded Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, Xinyu Wang of China, Varvara Gracheva of Russia and Panna Udvardy of Hungary.
Top-seeded Magda Linette of Poland opposed Camila Osorio of Colombia in one of three late matches.
–Field Level Media
