Bencic and Badosa advance as Raducanu knocked out in Dubai

World No. 13 and ninth seed Belinda Bencic conquered Spanish debutante Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Monday.

After losing the first set, 2-6, Bencic, who won the title here in 2019, changed her tactics in the second set and started playing a more basic game. It worked perfectly, and the Swiss star steamrolled the next two sets, 6-1, 6-2, to take the win. The Swiss said: “I am just glad I was able to calm my head down a little bit and try to play a very simple game to improve throughout the match. I think I just settled into the match.”

Bencic is set to face a new opponent in the next round of the tournament, 20-year-old Sara Bejlek. The pair have never met, and 28-year-old Swiss says she will need to study up overnight in order to head into her next match prepared. She expects, once again, to have to adapt during the match. “I will try to figure out all of the information I have, but during the match I’ll just have to adjust and figure it out as we go,” added Bencic.

Over on Court Two, British star Emma Raducanu’s much-anticipated return to Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium ended in defeat to Antonia Ruzic, 1-6, 7-5, 2-6. The Croatian had only replaced Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the morning after the Italian withdrew from the main draw due to a right thigh injury, and the lucky Lloser took her opportunity with both hands.

When Ruzic closed out the first set with ease inside half an hour, it looked like it would be a short night’s work for the diminutive Croat, ranked world No. 67. Yet Raducanu, positioned 42 places higher in the WTA rankings at No.25, repeatedly showed her mental fortitude to prolong the second set, before claiming two consecutive breaks to tie the match.

With the crowd suitably buoyed by what appeared to be a rejuvenated British No. 1, it looked like Raducanu would go on to close out the match. That feeling only grew stronger as she immediately broke her opponent again and held serve to take a 2-0 lead, but Ruzic had other plans. Fighting back and forcing her opponent onto her wayward backhand, Ruzic won six successive games to secure the third set and line up a second-round tie with another lucky loser, Anastasia Zakharova.

Spain’s Paula Badosa, a Dubai resident, dismantled Katerina Siniakova, 6-3, 7-5, to set-up a mouthwatering Round 2 clash against the tournament’s 2017 and 2018 champion, seventh seed Elina Svitolina. “Katerina’s a very tricky opponent; she’s won a lot of matches and I was expecting a tough battle,” said Badosa.

“I’m really pleased with my performance today. I tried to stay in there as she increased her level, it was very intense. I was trying to go for my shots, be aggressive, just trying to stay in the points as long as possible and wait for opportunities. I really look forward to playing here—I’m like a local now.”

Earlier on Centre Court, last year’s runner-up, Clara Tauson, the 12th seed, got her new campaign off to a positive start, beating 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in straight sets. The two exchanged a variety of powerful groundstrokes and intelligent net play in the first set, but it was Tauson who claimed the first-set tiebreaker. With American Kenin seeming to tire as the second set wore on, world No. 15 Tauson aggressively closed out the match, 7-6 (4), 6-2.

Another defeated Dubai finalist, Anna Kalinskaya, dug deep to beat off the challenge of another Grand Slam champion, Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open winner, to progress to the second round. Kalinskaya, who reached the final in 2024, lost the opening set 2-6 before fighting back to seal the next two sets, 6-1, 6-4, after a marathon clash on New Court 1.

Earlier in the day, world No. 20 and 16th seed Iva Jovic triumphed on New Court 1, beating Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1. The 18-year-old American is viewed as a star in the making and will next face Diana Shnaider in the second round. Shnaider, the world No. 21, overcame Australia’s Maya Joint.

Meanwhile, crowd favourite Leylah Fernandez, a Canadian of Filipino descent, saw her campaign grind to a halt on New Court 1 as she lost in straight sets to Indonesian wildcard Janice Tjen, 7-6 (5), 6-4. Under the hot afternoon sun, the game swung on a tight first set that had started with world No. 29 Fernandez falling 0-3 behind before rallying back to take a 5-4 lead and serve for the set. Yet she couldn’t convert, double-faulting at the breakpoint to gift Tjen the game, before also letting the tiebreaker get away from her.

“It was a great battle out there,” said 23-year-old Tjen, who also beat Fernandez in straight sets at the Australian Open. “I think the first set could have gone the other way, it was just a matter of my execution in the big moments. We know each other pretty well at this point; we’ve had a couple of practices together as well, but thanks to my coach I managed to prepare a little better. I’m pretty aggressive and always trying to control the point, which sometimes doesn’t work as well as I want it to, but today I was able to do that, stay aggressive, and I’m happy.”

Cluj-Napoca champion Sorana Cirstea extended her winning streak to six with a straight-sets defeat (6-3, 7-6) of qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich, and No. 14 seed Emma Navarro also advanced with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Elena-Gabriela Ruse.

An all-qualifier first round saw Varvara Gracheva defeat Rebecca Sramkova 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, while Daria Kasatkina beat Laura Siegemund 6-2, 6-3.