DUBAI RESULTS. Aryna Sabalenka gets by Sakkari in the 1st round of the Dubai Duty Free Championships

Aryna Sabalenka victorious over Maria Sakkari 6-2 4-6 6-1 in the 1^st round in Dubai on Tuesday. Sabalenka will face Elise Mertens in the 2^nd round.

Score, report, and key facts

1^st set.

Sabalenka had a running start at the beginning of the set after breaking Sakkari in the 2^nd game (2-0) before consolidating her break and lead 3-0. However, the set was not over yet and there was more work to do for the Belarussian to win the set since the Greek found the way to break back in the 7^th (2-5) game. Sabalenka maintained her focus to break Maria in the 8^th (6-2) game.

Sabalenka failed to serve out the set when leading 5-1 to be broken at 40.

2^nd set.

Sakkari won the set after recovering from 1 break down. In fact, after conceding her serve in the 4^th (1-3) game, The Greek broke back in the 5^th (2-3) and in the 9^th (5-4) game before winning the set 6-4.

3^rd set.

Sabalenka was in a great position at the beginning of the set to break Sakkari in the 2^nd game (2-0) before consolidating her break and lead 5-0. Sabalenka managed to boost her lead after breaking Maria in the 4^th (4-0) game before managing to win the set (6-1).

An important stage of this contest was when Aryna won 5 consecutive games in the 3^rd set to change the scoreline from 0-0 to 5-0.

Statistics

At the end of the match, Sabalenka scored 98 points vs. Maria’s 78 points.

Sabalenka won this match even if she wasn’t that great in converting her break points since she converted only 46% (6/13). On the other side, Maria was struggling to find the solution in converting her break points (only 33% – 3/9). That was one of the key issues for her defeat.

After this match, the head to head between Sabalenka and Sakkari is 2-1 for Aryna.

Highlights Aryna Sabalenka vs. Maria Sakkari Dubai Duty Free Championships – Dubai

Next Match H2H: Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elise Mertens – stats

Sabalenka will take on Mertens in the 2^nd round.

This will be the 5^th time that Aryna Sabalenka and Elise Mertens fight against each other. The head to head is 2-2 for Sabalenka and Mertens (see full H2H stats),but they are 1-1 on hard.

The last time that they squared off, Sabalenka won 6-4 3-6 7-5 in the R in Zhuhai back in 2019.

Tennis Scores in Dubai

• Anett KontaveitKontaveit – Sorana CirsteaCirstea (6-1 6-3) – See score progression
• Aryna SabalenkaSabalenka – Maria SakkariSakkari (6-2 4-6 6-1) – See score progression
• Veronika KudermetovaKudermetova – Dayana YastremskaYastremska (5-7 6-3 7-6²) – See score progression
• Kristina MladenovicMladenovic – Aliaksandra SasnovichSasnovich (6-4 6-3) – See score progression
• Jennifer BradyBrady – Elina SvitolinaSvitolina (6-2 6-1) – See score progression
• Anastasia PavlyuchenkovaPavlyuchenkova – Belinda BencicBencic (1-6 6-1 6-1) – See score progression
• Katerina SiniakovaSiniakova – Karolina MuchovaMuchova (6-4 4-6 6-0) – See score progression
• Petra MarticMartic – Su-Wei HsiehHsieh (6-4 6-3) – See score progression
• Elena RybakinaRybakina – Sofia KeninKenin (6-7² 6-3 6-3) – See score progression
• Elise MertensMertens – Qiang WangWang (6-3 6-0) – See score progression
• Marketa VondrousovaVondrousova – Anastasija SevastovaSevastova (6-3 6-2) – See score progression
• Garbine MuguruzaMuguruza – Kim ClijstersClijsters (6-2 7-6⁶) – See score progression
• Barbora StrycovaStrycova – Amanda AnisimovaAnisimova (7-6³ 2-6 6-4) – See score progression
• Ons JabeurJabeur – Alison RiskeRiske (7-6³ 1-6 6-3) – See score progression

Upcoming matches

• Simona HalepHalep – Ons JabeurJabeur (0-1) – See H2H details
• Elise MertensMertens – Aryna SabalenkaSabalenka (2-2) – See H2H details
• Jennifer BradyBrady – Marketa VondrousovaVondrousova (0-0) – See H2H details
• Veronika KudermetovaKudermetova – Garbine MuguruzaMuguruza (0-0) – See H2H details
• Petra MarticMartic – Barbora StrycovaStrycova (3-1) – See H2H details
• Anett KontaveitKontaveit – Anastasia PavlyuchenkovaPavlyuchenkova (3-2) – See H2H details
• Elena RybakinaRybakina – Katerina SiniakovaSiniakova (2-2) – See H2H details
• Kristina MladenovicMladenovic – Karolina PliskovaPliskova (2-3) – See H2H details