No. 9 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia dropped the opening set then rallied for a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Xiyu Wang of China on Monday during the first round of the Dubal Duty Free Tennis Championships at Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
No. 12 seed Liudmila Samsonova and No. 13 seed Veronika Kudermetova, both of Russia, also advanced in the opening round.
Ostapenko, who was the Dubai champion in 2022, won 78 percent of her first-serve points, but had to survive 11 aces by Wang while winning the match in 2 hours, 2 minutes. Afterward, Ostapenko said she was ready to stay on the court even longer, mostly because of an oversight.
“I thought the score was 5-2, and when it was 6-3, I was like, ‘What’s happening?’,” Ostapenko said during her on-court interview. “It’s the first time I miscounted the score in my life, maybe since juniors. I was ready to play more, and the match was already over.”
Two-time Dubai champion Elina Svitolina of Ukraine also was a winner on Monday, with the No. 15 seed getting past Anhelina Kalinina, also of Ukraine, 6-3, 7-6 (7). Svitolina won 82 percent of her first-serve points while saving all three break points and breaking Kalinina once in three chances.
“It’s a great tournament here,” said Svitolina, who won consecutive Dubai titles in 2017 and 2018. “I’m really happy to be back in the city, back on the center court. Have so many great memories. Brings back, really, joy for me.”
Samsonova advanced with a 7-6 (2), 6-3 victory over Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria despite having her serve broken while trying to close out the first set at 6-5. She won the set by winning the last six points of the tiebreak.
Kudermetova moved on with an up-and-down 6-0, 1-6, 6-0 victory over Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine. Kudermetova had her serve broken twice, both in the second set, while braking Yastremska’s serve six times in 13 chances.
Other first-round winners included Switzerland’s Lulu Sun, who won the first set 6-4 and moved on when Spain’s Paula Badosa retired with an injury. Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova earned a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Marie Bouzkova of Czech Republic. Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic came out on top 6-3, 7-5 over China’s Shuai Zhang.
Russia’s Anastasia Potapova also moved into the second round with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Lin Zhu of China.
–Field Level Media