DUBAI: Emma Raducanu got her maiden Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships campaign off to the perfect start on Sunday night, defeating former World No. 3 Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-4, 6-2 under the lights on Centre Court.
Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, is a high-profile wildcard this week as Dubai’s women’s tournament celebrates its landmark 25th anniversary. Making her first appearance in the tournament, she broke her opponent at the first opportunity to take an early lead at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium. Yet Sakkari, ranked 29th in the world and 31 places above her opponent, battled back to level the set in the sixth.
Raducanu arrived in Dubai on a run of four consecutive defeats and three first-round exits. So it was much to her credit that she maintained composure to immediately regain the lead, breaking back without dropping a point.
“I just tried to stay focused on what was in front of me,” Raducanu said. “There was some momentum shared throughout the match and I think when I was broken in the first set, I regrouped really well to break back and was really pleased with how I performed.”
The second set was initially similar to the first as the British No. 2 immediately broke Sakkari’s serve before letting her lead slip once more, this time in the fourth game. But she kept her composure and regained the lead — this time turning the screw to break again and capitalise on Sakkari’s errors to take a 5-2 lead. Serving for the match, she drew cheers from the crowd with a powerful ace down the middle.
“I’m very happy to get through to the next round,” she said. “The support has been great tonight. It’s my first time spending a little bit of time here (in Dubai) and I’ve really enjoyed it. What I love most is that everything is open late and I’m a big night owl, so I can go out and go for my walks at, like, 11pm.”
The two players had only ever met previously at Grand Slams, with Raducanu coming out on top both in the semi-final of her historic 2021 US Open campaign and in the Round of 32 at Wimbledon last year. With her Dubai victory making it a hat-trick of wins over the same opponent — all without dropping a set — Raducanu was asked on court what it is about Sakkari’s game she most enjoys playing against.
“It’s a difficult one … In a way, we play quite similar, she’s very athletic,” Raducanu said. “I’m not necessarily going to give all my tactics away; it’s just a very difficult match every time we play, so I’m happy to have won on these occasions — and all big tournaments.”
Raducanu will now meet 14th seed Karolina Muchova in the second round on Tuesday after the Czech overcame Suzan Lamens 6-2, 6-2 on Court 1.
Earlier in the evening, two-time champion Elina Svitolina made light work of last year’s surprise finalist Anna Kalinskaya, defeating the World No. 18 6-1, 6-2 in a little more than an hour. Thirty-year-old Svitolina is making her 10th appearance in the emirate and wasted no time dispatching No. 15 seed Kalinskaya, who made history in the event last year to become the first qualifier to reach the final of the WTA 1000 event.
World No. 22 Svitolina, a back-to-back winner here in 2017 and 2018, will now face either Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova or Clara Tauson of Denmark.
Meanwhile, World No. 34 Marketa Vondrousova advanced to the second round after beating French wildcard Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-2 on Court 1. The Czech will now face either Elina Avanesyan or Mirra Andreeva, who meet on Monday in the final match on Centre Court. Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic also advanced with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Japan’s Aoi Ito, while American wildcard Sofia Kenin despatched Donna Vekic 7-5, 6-3. There was no surprise in the first match of the day as World No. 10 Paula Badosa beat New Zealand’s Lulu Sun 6-3, 6-4.
The 25th edition of the annual WTA 1000 event runs until Feb. 22, before the 33rd staging of Dubai’s ATP Tour 500 tournament takes place from Feb. 24 to March 1.
