Garbine Muguruza defeated former world number 1, Kim Clijsters, in the first round at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship.
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.