
Former World No.1 Garbine Muguruza continued her spectacular season on Thursday, as she battled past Aryna Sabalenka to reach the semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
With both ladies meeting for the second time in two weeks, Sabalenka was hoping to avenge her loss to the Spaniard at last week's Doha semifinal. However, it was Muguruza who again emerged victorious, outlasting her Belarusian opponent in a 3-6 6-3 6-2 slugfest.
"I felt like she came out today more aggressive than our last match in Doha," Muguruza said after the match. "I felt like she wanted to play more aggressive, faster, serving big, and I kind of struggled to find my shots, my game, and she quickly broke me with the serve and took the first set."
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Although Sabalenka had the edge in winners as she hit 26 to Muguruza's 23, she was undone by 34 unforced errors. The Spaniard played a cleaner game, hitting only 20 unforced errors and converting five of her 11 break points.
"I tried to be more aggressive as well," revealed Muguruza. "If you have somebody in front of you that is trying to win the point in a couple of shots, you have to be faster and stronger, so I tried to be dominant after. Then everything was more equal. I felt more in the points."
The two-time Grand Slam champion advanced to her third Dubai semifinal (2015 and 2018), where she will face Sabalenka's doubles partner, Elise Mertens. The Belgian defeated American Jessica Pegula 5-7 7-5 6-0 earlier in the day, saving three match points to advance to the semifinals.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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