Wednesday, February 22, 2023 – 10:25 PM
DUBAI, 22nd February, 2020 (WAM) — Poland’s Iga Schwontec, ranked first in the world, started her career in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for women, and successfully made her way to the third round of the tournament by defeating Canadian Lily Fernandez in the second round of the tournament.
It took Chivontec, the first seed for the tournament, 73 minutes to beat its Canadian opponent 6-1, 6-1 in its first match in the tournament, following the draw prevented it from entering the first round competitions.
Chiwontec, 21, will meet in the third round of the tournament, with Russian Lyudmila Samsonova, ranked 15th in the world, who in turn qualified at the expense of Chinese Sheng Keunwen.
Belarusian Arina Sabalenka, the world number two, defending Australian Open champion, defeated American Lauren Davis, ranked 49 in the world, 6-0, 6-1, to face Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, seed 20, who beat Czech Linda Vruvitova 6-2, 6- 0.
And as a continuation of the series of marathon matches in the current edition of the tournament, Swiss Belinda Bencic, ranked 9 in the world, won the title of the first edition of the “Mubadala Abu Dhabi” tournament, over the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, ranked 55 in the world, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 in a match It took 3 hours and 27 minutes (207 minutes).
Fifth-seeded American Coco Gauff defeated Belarusian Alexandra Sasnovich 6-0 6-4 to book her place in the third round, where she will face Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, who beat Marie Bouzkova 7-5, 6-2 in an hour and 43 minutes.
Islama Al-Hussein / Waleed Farooq
