Maria Sakkari battles past Nuria Parrizas Diaz in Abu Dhabi

The Greek player made a winning return after somewhat of a disappointing stay in Australia where she failed to reach her goals but she looked far better here.

It was a straight-sets win for Sakkari who entered the match very motivated and it showed on the court. Aggressive and attacking, she was able to outhit her opponent and cruise to a rather quick 6-1 set. She did a lot of damage on the second serve of the Spaniard while being pretty solid on her own.

The second offered a lot more excitement for the spectators as both players were able to keep their serves intact following the first set. We arrived at 5-5 with neither player facing a single break point but then we saw plenty of excitement. Sakkari broke her opponent to take a 6-5 lead after a very long and tight game that featured multiple deuces.

She wasn't able to close out the match after that but rather dropped her serve easily to send the match into a tiebreak. In the tiebreak, Sakkari managed to hold her composure and finish off the match to move on to the next round.