FOR THE greatest current hard court player, world number one Aryna Sabalenka sure is making a habit of losing on hard courts of late. Since her run to the Australian Open final – and narrowly missing a three-peat – the Belarussian has won just one match – against qualifier Veronika Kudermetova – and lost three, all on hard court.

Her meek 6-3 6-2 defeat at the hands of equally powerful Dane Clara Tauson in the second round of Dubai added to that of her 3-6 6-3 7-6 loss to Ekaterina Alexandrova in Doha, and of course the Australian Open final 6-3 2-6 7-5 to American Madison Keys at Melbourne Park.

It is hardly cause for concern for the world number one who is clearly still, and will be a long-time threat on the surface – and really any surface – but it does show that she is beatable on her day. Against Tauson, Sabalenka described her lack of “hunger” as the reason for the defeat, and it really showed given she won just five games.

Speaking on the defeat – which was in stark contrast to Sabalenka’s 7-6 6-4 triumph over Tauson at the Australian Open on January 17, the Belarussian said Tauson was simply better.

“Today Clara played a great match, I think she came here better prepared than me,” she said. “She had more hunger than me this time, that’s all, so very well done on her part and not so much on mine. “In our last match, the one we played last month in Australia, I was a different player.”

For Tauson, the 6-3 6-2 win came about from a simple plan and one that she is usually good to stick to – “hit everything” – against the top-ranked talent.

“Last time, I had my chances, but I didn’t take them,” Tauson said. “Today I was really free in my mind. I knew she had to beat me and I’m the underdog all the way, and I was really enjoying my time out on the court.”

Tauson took an hour and 24 minutes to get the victory, hitting 32 winners to only 15 unforced errors in a brilliant display. Sabalenka was not bad either, with a fair 26 winners to 22 unforced errors, while still breaking a couple of times. However the Dane’s remarkable 80 per cent first serve success rate (20/25) compared to Sabalenka’s 48 per cent (19/40) was the difference as the world number 38 broke six times in the win.

The Dane has always had the talent to take on the big hitters of the Tour with injuries having derailed the early years after a stellar junior career that included winning the Danish Tennis Championship at just 13 and then winning 11 ITF titles at just 14, eventually taking out the 2019 Australian Open Junior Girls title. Unfortunately injury has quelled her progress but she is on the up and almost cracking the Top 30.

The 22-year-old will face another young gun in Czech Linda Noskova in the quarter finals after Noskova took out fifth seeded American Jessica Pegula in straight sets, 6-3 7-6. There were some one-sided results with 12th seeded Russian Mirra Andreeva dropping just two games en route to a 6-1 6-1 demolition of Peyton Stearns.

Meanwhile world number two Iga Swiatek and American Sofia Kenin grabbed second set bagels after tight first sets against Dayana Yastremska and Jasmine Paolini respectively, the latter clearly under injury duress. In other results, Romanian wildcard Sorana Cirstea stunned Emma Navarro, Karolina Muchova survived being another scalp of McCartney Kessler‘s, and Elena Rybakina accounted for Paula Badosa in the match of the tournament so far, 4-6 7-6 7-6.

2025 DUBAI TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS – ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

Clara Tauson (DEN) defeated [1] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 6-3 6-2
[2] Iga Swiatek (POL) defeated Dayana Yastremska (UKR) 7-5 6-0
[WC] Sofia Kenin (USA) defeated [4] Jasmine Paolini (ITA) 6-4 6-0
Linda Noskova (CZE) defeated [5] Jessica Pegula (USA) 6-3 7-6
[6] Elena Rybakina (KAZ) defeated [9] Paula Badosa (ESP) 4-6 7-6 7-6
[WC] Sorana Cirstea (ROU) defeated [8] Emma Navarro (USA) 7-6 3-6 7-6
[12] Mirra Andreeva (RUS) defeated Peyton Stearns (USA) 6-1 6-1
[14] Karolina Muchova (CZE) defeated McCartney Kessler (USA) 6-3 1-6 7-6