FILE – Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina reacts as she performs towards Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka through the girls’s singles last on day 13 of the Australian Open tennis event in Melbourne on January 28, 2023. (Photograph by Martin KEEP / AFP)
In a first-round matchup of former Grand Slam champions, ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan beat Canada’s Bianca Andreescu 6-3, 6-4 on Monday within the Dubai Obligation Free Tennis Championships.
Rybakina, the reigning Wimbledon champion, completed with a 6-2 edge in aces and picked on Andreescu’s second serve, successful 11 of 14 factors.
Rybakina took the primary set in 38 minutes, however Andreescu jumped out to a 3-1 lead within the second set. Nonetheless, Andreescu misplaced her last three service video games as Rybakina closed out the match.
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the thirteenth seed, and Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka, the fifteenth seed, each received their opening matches in straight units. Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina upset Tenth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, and Romania’s Sorana Cirstea edged Eleventh-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5 after saving two match factors within the second-set tiebreaker.
Romania’s Ana Bogdan, the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova and Karolina Pliskova, the US’ Lauren Davis and Shelby Rogers and Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich additionally received their opening matches.
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The US’ Caty McNally upset third-seeded Lin Zhu of China 7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 6-1 within the first spherical at Merida, Mexico.
McNally overcame serving eight double faults (to a few for Zhu) and successful simply 27 % of her second-serve factors, 10 of 37. The match featured 15 service breaks, 9 of them on Zhu’s serve.
In one other U.S.-China matchup, the Chinese language participant received, as Xiyu Wang eradicated eighth-seeded Alison Riske-Amritraj 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (1).
Seventh-seeded Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy cruised previous Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic 6-0, 6-3. Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure, Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz, Australia’s Kimberly Birrell and the US’ Katie Volynets additionally superior to the second spherical.
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