No. 16 seed Iva Jovic came away with a roller-coaster 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 win over Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Championship in the United Arab Emirates on Monday.
Jovic, one of just three seeded competitors in action Monday, stunningly lost all three of her service games in a sloppy second set after coasting to an easy first-set victory by winning the first five games of the match.
She responded by winning the final five games of the third set while facing (and saving) just one break point. She overcame a 61% first-serve percentage thanks in part to Rakhimova’s 56% first-serve percentage and eight double faults.
In another match with a seeded competitor, No. 12 Clara Tauson of Denmark defeated Sofia Kenin 7-6 (4), 6-2.
After the first 10 games were on serve, Tauson was broken to fall behind 6-5 in the opening set but broke right back and rallied from a 2-0 deficit to claim the tiebreaker. The second set was less stressful as Tauson jumped out to a 2-0 lead and won the final three games to deny a comeback bid.
Tauson finished the win with 20 aces against five double faults, winning 90% of her first-serve points and converting three of her four break-point opportunities.
Emma Navarro, the other American seeded competitor in action Monday, opened with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Elena Gabriela Ruse of Romania. The No. 14 seed clinched each set with breaks, overcoming just one ace and six double faults.
The withdrawals continued to stack up in Dubai, with that tally now up to eight at the end of Monday’s competition. The new additions included Canada’s Mackenzie Mboko, who cracked the top 10 of the WTA rankings for the first time on Monday, citing a right elbow issue, and Czechia’s Barbora Krejcikova, who won her opener but pulled out with a left thigh injury ahead of her match with Amanda Anisimova.
That gave Anisimova, the No. 2 seed, a walkover to the third round where she’ll open her run against Indonesia’s Janice Tjen, who beat Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Third-seeded American Coco Gauff will open in the second round against Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, who beat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
No. 4 seed U.S. competitor Jessica Pegula will open against Varvara Gracheva of France, who outlasted Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova in a 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 win.
Also advancing to the second round on Monday were Sorana Cirstea and Jaqueline Cristian of Romania, Australia’s Daria Kasatkina, Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova, Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic and Spain’s Paula Badosa.
–Field Level Media
