Muguruza defeats Clijsters on her comeback in Dubai

Following the victories of Elise Mertens and Barbora Strycova, fans in Dubai got what they were waiting for on day 1. After Kiki Bertens withdrew from Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, she was replaced by the 2020 Australian Open runner-up, Garbine Muguruza. And the Spaniard was to face former Australian Open champion, Kim Clijsters.

The highly-anticipated matchup brought everything fans could have asked for. Although the match did not go into the third set and Clijsters was not the winner, it showed a very high level of tennis and a great promise for the future of the Belgian.

Garbine Muguruza started the match with a break in the very first game. Adding another break later, the Spaniard managed to win the first set comfortably 6-2.

Muguruza had a quick start into the second set as well leading early 3-0 with two breaks. However, Clijsters was playing better by each point as she fought her way back and got a 5-4 lead. Neither Muguruza nor Clijsters was able to get any more breaks in the second set. Therefore, this set was decided by a tie-break. The Belgian got an early 2-0 lead. However, from that moment, Garbine was a better player. She secured 8-6 victory in the tie-break to book the second-round spot in Dubai.