WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Round-Up | Raducanu exits in surprise, Badosa impresses, Anisimova moves forward

The WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships continues, and this Monday the players who advanced to the second round were finished being decided. Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez were among the surprise defeats of the day, while the Americans smile, with several of their representatives advancing – including Iva Jovic and Emma Navarro, who took victories in their debuts.

On the other hand, we had the return to the courts of Paula Badosa, who secured a win in straight sets. Unfortunately, the two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova withdrew before stepping onto the court to face Amanda Anisimova, in what was expected to be the closing match of the day.

Iva Jovic (No. 20) secured a hard-fought victory over Kamila Rakhimova (No. 91) – who took advantage of the last-minute withdrawal of Maria Sakkari to enter as a lucky loser. The 18-year-old American maintained 70% first serves, winning 61% of them, converted four breaks in 11 opportunities, while Rakhimova claimed three breaks in 10 chances. Jovic even conceded three consecutive breaks in the second set, but recovered in the third, taking the lead to close with a run of five consecutive games in her favour for a 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 victory.

World No. 19 Emma Navarro also debuted with a win, taking advantage of her status as favourite over Gabriela Ruse (No. 80). The 24-year-old arrived in Dubai with four defeats in her last five matches, but this time she secured a victory that showed her high level: four breaks in her favour, 71% first serve, and 66% of those points won. The former top-10 begins to find a better rhythm of play and will look to continue adding victories at the start of the year.

Meanwhile, the player who did not need to step onto the court was the two-time Grand Slam finalist Amanda Anisimova, who had a complicated clash scheduled against the two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova (No. 52), but the Czech once again came out injured, this time due to a left thigh injury. A day earlier, Krejcikova had defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6-4, 6-4).

With this, Anisimova secured her passage to the Round of 16, where she will face the Indonesian Janice Tjen – one of the most interesting clashes to follow for the second round of the tournament.

And it was precisely Tjen (No. 46) who delivered one of the blows of the first round, by eliminating Leylah Fernandez (No. 29) in straight sets. Tjen is one of the players who began to make a name for herself on the Tour over the last year, and just like at the Australian Open one month earlier, she once again imposed herself convincingly on Fernandez with a 7-6, 6-4 scoreline.

Fernandez showed her usual fighting spirit during the match; in the first set she recovered from a break down three times (including at 4-5 and at 5-6), and forced the tie-break, but it was not enough to complete the comeback and Tjen ended up moving ahead after more than an hour of the first set.

The second set was marked by consistency on serve from both players, and by the fact that only one lapse midway through the set made the difference. Tjen took advantage of a single break opportunity in the fifth game and then held onto her serve to close the victory over Leylah – for the second time in less than a month – by 7-6(5), 6-4.

The player who also suffered a surprise elimination was former US Open champion Emma Raducanu (No. 25), who was making her debut against lucky loser Antonia Ruzic (No. 67) – following the withdrawal of Elisabetta Cocciaretto. The young Croatian arrived with five consecutive defeats in the last month – including in the qualifiers – but managed to produce her best tennis to take the victory over Raducanu by 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.

The Croatian could have secured a straightforward win after dominating the first set and a large part of the second. Ruzic led 6-1, 5-3 and had the chance to serve to close the match, but the start of a comeback from the British No. 1 arrived, as Raducanu won four games in a row. Raducanu even moved ahead 2-0 in the third set, but Ruzic recovered mentally and was the absolute dominator of the remainder of the match. Ruzic claimed the last six games consecutively – converting three of five break opportunities – and sealed one of the best victories of her career.

The former world No. 2 Paula Badosa (No. 70) returned to the courts after her withdrawal from the Qatar Open last week. The Spaniard lost a good number of points after the Australian Open – after failing to defend the semifinals reached last year – and is looking to recover in the rankings following a significant drop. However, injuries have been her biggest problem, keeping her out during the last weeks of competition, although this time she had a reassuring return after defeating the experienced Katerina Siniakova (No. 42) in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.

The Spaniard had some problems on serve – just 50% first serve and a total of nine double faults. However, when the first serve went in, it was especially effective, winning 84% of those points – well above her opponent’s 58%. Badosa applied pressure in the key moments and closed the victory by taking the last three games in a row, securing a second-round clash against the seventh seed Elina Svitolina.