DUBAI – Former champion Simona Halep of Romania breezed to a 6-2, 6-4 win against American Alison Riske in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in the United Arab Emirates.
The unseeded Halep, who won the event in 2020, struck six aces and saved both break points she faced during a match that lasted one hour, 11 minutes. She improved to 4-0 against Riske.
No.6 seed Iga Swiatek and No.2 seed Barbora Krejcikova both reprised January wins in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Swiatek raced past Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-2 in 65 minutes, conceding two fewer games than in her 6-2, 6-3 defeat of the Russian in the Australian Open third round.
Krejcikova edged out wildcard Caroline Garcia 6-4, 7-6(0) after facing a sterner challenge than in her 6-0, 6-2 win over the Frenchwoman in the Sydney quarter-finals.
Krejcikova, last year’s runner-up to Garbine Muguruza, came through a match in which both players suffered from inconsistency on serve.
The Czech’s seven aces were outweighed by eight double faults, and she found just 12 winners to 28 unforced errors.
But Krejcikova displayed greater focus on big points, while Garcia was undone by a ratio of 35 unforced errors to 15 winners.
The Roland Garros champion failed to serve out the match after Garcia came up with a brilliant pickup and then received the fortune of a dead net cord on break point.
However, she recovered to dominate a tiebreak in which Garcia fell away as suddenly as she had resurged.
Swiatek delivered a clinical performance against Kasatkina, who had been forced to withdraw from St. Petersburg last week due to a positive Covid-19 test.
Kasatkina began to raise her level midway through the second set, playing her best and most aggressive tennis to grit out a hold for 2-3.
But already down a set and a break, it was too little, too late – particularly with Swiatek responding with the kind of form that saw her pull off a scintillating no-look backhand pass en route to breaking Kasatkina for 5-2.
The 20-year-old converted her first match point with some doughty defence, Kasatkina proving unable to put multiple overheads away before Swiatek nailed another winning backhand pass.
An all-American first-round derby between two of last year’s quarterfinalists saw Jessica Pegula progress 6-4, 6-4 past Coco Gauff. There were 10 breaks of serve in total, and it was a match decided mostly by unforced errors: Pegula’s 34 (to only nine winners) were still fewer than Gauff’s 52 (to 15 to winners).
Gauff was also beset by 10 double faults, and won only 30 per cent of her second serve points compared to Pegula’s 58 per cent. Australian Open quarterfinalist Pegula, who has risen to a career high of No.14 this week, captured the initial lead in both sets, and just about held on to it both times despite Gauff’s tenacity from behind.
2013 champion Petra Kvitova closed out the night session with a blistering 68-minute performance to defeat Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-0.
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