IN a remarkable day of upsets, three of the top five seeds are out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, including Australian Open winner, Sofia Kenin in her first WTA Tour match since her triumph at Melbourne Park. While she lost to Jelena Ostapenko in the Fed Cup, her last singles match for WTA Tour ranking points was her victory over Garbine Muguruza in the Grand Slam final last month.

In what was a thrilling contest, in-form 20-year-old Elena Rybakina showed why regular tournaments are important, with the St Petersburg finalist getting home in two hours from a set down, 6-7 6-3 6-3 to bundle out the Aus Open champion. The Kazakhstani served seven aces for only one double fault, winning 65 per cent of her points on both her first and second serves. Her American opponent won 68.9 per cent on her first serve, but struggled on her second serve, converting just 46.3 per cent of her points. Rybakina also broke four times to once, saving four break point opportunities. It was the first time the pair had played against one another, and Rybakina’s form continues to build this year with fine tennis, and Kenin is her top scalp to-date.

Rybakina now takes on Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova, who ran away with the contest against compatriot, Karolina Muchova in three sets, 6-4 4-6 6-0. In other results, Russian 22-year-old Veronika Kudermetova dumped Ukrainian teenager, Dayana Yastremska out of the Dubai Tennis Championships with a come-from-behind 5-7 6-3 7-6 victory in two hours and 18 minutes. In-form Estonian, Anett Kontaveit rolled past Romania’s Sonia Cirstea 6-1 6-3, while Kristina Mladenovic had a straight forward 6-4 6-3 win over Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich in an hour and 32 minutes.

In the other seeded results, eighth seed Croatian Petra Martic put behind her disaster of a tournament at Hua Hin last week – where she lost to 128th ranked Wang Xiyu in straight sets – to post a 6-4 6-3 win over Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei. Meanwhile unseeded players who have had had some great form in 2020 already did well with Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova winning 1-6 6-1 6-1 against fourth seed Belinda Bencic – who was coming of a quarter finals appearance at St Petersburg – while third seed Elina Svitolina suffered a disastrous loss to Jennifer Brady 6-2 6-1 in an hour, which brings her up to three WTA Tour losses this season, winning a combined 11 games in those three losses. In other words, when she loses, she really gets blown away. In the final result, seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka overcame a determined Maria Sakkari, to win 6-2 4-6 6-1 in three sets.

ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

J. Brady (USA) defeated [3] E. Svitolina (UKR) 6-2 6-1
A. Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) defeated [4] B. Bencic (SUI) 1-6 6-1 6-1
E. Rybakina (KAZ) defeated [5] S. Kenin (USA) 6-7 6-3 6-3
[7] A. Sabalenka (BLR) defeated M. Sakkari (GRE) 6-2 4-6 6-1
[8] P. Martic (CRO) defeated S. Hsieh (TAI) 6-4 6-3
V. Kudermetova (RUS) defeated D. Yastremska (UKR) 5-7 6-3 7-6
K. Mladenovic (FRA) defeated A. Sasnovich (BLR) 6-4 6-3
K. Siniakova (CZE) defeated K. Muchova (CZE) 6-4 4-6 6-0
A. Kontaveit (EST) defeated S. Cirstea (ROU) 6-1 6-3