Victoria Azarenka defeats Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Dubai

The Dubai Championships started well for Azarenka who proved better than Pavlyuchenkova who battled but ultimately didn't have enough to turn this around.

Returning from injury is always tough and the Russian is not having a very good time attempting it. At times she looks like her older self but for the most part, she struggles to find a really good rhythm. It's been a totally different experience for Azarenka so far this year because she's been playing really well.

It continued today as she handled this tricky matchup fairly well. The first set opened with Azarenka having to save a couple of break points which she did. After that, she took a 5-1 lead with her opponent pulling one of those back to make it more respectable 6-3. The second set was not very similar as Pavlyuchenkova battled a lot more in that one.

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She did drop her serve early but made it 2-2. She dropped it again but pulled it back in the game when Azarenka served for the match. Eventually, she dropped her serve once more and this time around she was unable to get it back. A solid performance and a good win overall for Azarenka.