DUBAI: Aryna Sabalenka and Garbine Muguruza avoided falling victim to one of a succession of upsets at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday, where only three seeds survived at the end of play.
Second seed Karolina Pliskova slumped to a stunning 6-0 6-2 third-round defeat at the hands of Jessica Pegula, while fifth seed — and 2019 champion — Belinda Bencic was beaten 6-1 2-6 7-5 by tournament wild card Anastasia Potapova.
Teenage sensation Coco Gauff took another step toward the possibility of contesting Saturday’s final on her 17th birthday by defeating qualifier Tereza Martincova 6-4 6-2.
However, Arab sporting icon Ons Jabeur failed to advance to the quarter-finals, falling 6-3 6-3 to Jil Teichmann.
“Jil’s a great player,” said Jabeur. “It wasn’t my best game today; a lot of unforced errors. Obviously it wasn’t my day today and, as I’ve said, I haven’t felt great lately on the court. I wasn’t expecting much from this tournament and I was taking it day by day. It was kind of tough for me.”
Two French Open champions faced off in another third-round clash, with 2016 winner Garbine Muguruza overcoming current title holder Iga Swiatek 6-0 6-4. In the other matches, third seed Aryna Sabalenka eased past Anett Kontaveit 6-3 6-2, 10th seed Elise Mertens beat Caroline Garcia 6-4 6-2 and Barbora Krejcikova ended the run of Svetlana Kuznetsova with a 6-3 6-2 victory.
Muguruza was particularly impressive against Swiatek, dominating her less-experienced opponent in the first set and then holding off a greater challenge in the second.
“I took my opportunities and I was efficient when I had to break her serve or stay with my own serve,” said Muguruza. “Just happy with the way I started. I was very focused, very looking forward to the match as well. Sometimes you start a little bit off but today I felt good on the court.
“It got a little bit more tight and I felt she was playing better. I had to stay strong there and not get tense or nervous, and try to stay calm to be able to close the set and not give her the chance to go to a third set.”
Pliskova’s clash with Pegula, who secured victory in just 53 minutes, was their second contest in two weeks. The American also came out on top in Doha, by a similarly emphatic 6-3 6-1 scoreline. While Pegula is flourishing, Pliskova has lost her last seven matches to opponents ranked outside of the top 20.
She had struggled on Tuesday to overcome Anastasija Sevastova in a three-set battle that stretched to more than two hours, and that might have played a part in her defeat on Wednesday. She produced seven double faults, made 26 unforced errors and won only a third of the points against her dominant opponent.
“Definitely she has a lot of confidence because any time there is a close game she’s able to play some great points,” Pliskova said of Pegula. “I think she played some good tennis and I was just not able to have any answer. My tennis was not there where I want to be but I think she has a lot to do with it. I have to give a lot of credit to her.”
In contrast, Pegula breezed through her two previous matches this week, giving up just three games in each, and her confident performance always had sixth-ranked Pliskova on the back foot. Wednesday’s victory follows an equally impressive win over world number five Elina Svitolina at the Australian Open last month, where Pegula reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final.
“I think I didn’t give away a lot of free points,” she said. “Serve and first ball return is what I think I did really well and I didn’t make a lot of errors. That’s what I wanted to do and I think I just stuck with my game plan pretty well and was able to execute it.”
In Thursday’s quarter-finals, Krejcikova will play Potapova, Mertens will face Pegula, Sabalenka will attempt to prevent ninth seed Garbine Muguruza reaching her third Dubai semi-final, and Gauff will take on Teichmann.
