Dubai: Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic joined two seeded players — 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and 16th seed Roberta Vinci — as the three high-profile exits on the opening day of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open, which got under way at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Sunday.

Jankovic, a losing finalist on her debut in 2005, went down in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 to Germany’s Mona Barthel, while Pavlyuchenkova was ousted by Tunisian qualifier Ons Jabeur. Vinci, who turned 34 on Saturday, went down 6-3, 5-7, 3-6 to Kristyna Pliskova, twin sister of world No. 3 Karolina.

Jankovic, a long-time resident of Dubai, was broken early, after which Barthel breezed through the opening set 6-1 in just 25 minutes. The German broke early and nosed ahead in the second, but Jankovic showed signs of putting up a fight as she broke back in the sixth game for 3-3, but failed to hold on and let the match slip away.

“I don’t know what happened out there. I didn’t seem to be in the match at any given time. I was so slow and so frozen. Every time I have played in the night here it’s the same feeling where I don’t feel the ball at all,” Jankovic told media.

“Mona [Barthel] played well and all credit to her. But it was just that I was not good enough,” she added.

Meanwhile, Tunisian Jabeur, who came through two rounds of qualifying, did the Arab world proud with a 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-4 win over the Russian. The 22-year-old Jabeur, a former junior French Open champion, will now await the winner of the match between Jelena Ostapenko and Qiang Wang.

Japan’s Naomi Osaka also made a dream debut with a 6-2, 6-4 win over qualifier Kai-Chen Zhang of China. Meeting for the first time on tour, the higher-ranked 19-year-old Osaka took an hour and 19 minutes to get past her 26-year-old opponent from China.

Osaka has held steady form since the start of this season following an appearance in the second round at the Australian Open, where she went down to No. 9 Johanna Konta. She had begun 2017 with a quarter-final at the Auckland Open, where she retired in her quarter-final against Ana Konjuh with a left wrist injury.

“I was nervous and I am really happy that I was able to close out the match,” Osaka said.

“I have not played too many matches this year and I am pleased that my serve and return did not let me down. This is the first time I’ve been to Dubai and I am enjoying it,” she added.

Her next opponent will be the winner of the match between Kiki Bertens and Christina McHale. “The courts are quite fast here and playing either Kiki or Christina should be a fun match,” the teenager said.

Earlier, Caroline Garcia became the first player to enter the second round with an easy 6-3, 6-3 win over Swedish girl Johanna Larsson. Garcia, a singles semi-finalist and runner-up in the doubles last year, took only 67 minutes to get her campaign under way.

Champion at the 2011 US Open, Australia’s Samantha Stosur also eased her way into the next round with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Chinese qualifier Kai-Lin Zhang. Stosur, who has been a regular in Dubai since her debut in 2005, took just 75 minutes to send her opponent packing. The 12th-seeded Australian will get a day off on Monday before she takes on the winner of the match between Shuai Zhang and Ana Konjuh.

However, holding up the China presence here was Saisai Zheng with a hard-fought 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Lara Arruabarrena to set up a second round meeting with seventh-seeded Elina Svitolina on Tuesday.

RESULTS

Women’s singles: Caroline Garcia bt Johanna Larsson 6-3, 6-3; Samantha Stosur bt Kai-Lin Zhang 6-3, 6-3; Naomi Osaka bt Kai-Chen Chang 6-2, 6-4; Jelena Ostapenko bt Qiang Wang 7-6 (1), 6-2; Anastasija Sevastova bt Irina-Camelia Begu 6-1, 7-5; Ekaterina Makarova bt Lin Zhu 6-3, 6-1; Ons Jabeur bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-4; Saisai Zheng bt Lara Arruabarrena 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Viktorija Golubic bt Cagla Buyukakcay 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-2; Mona Barthel bt Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 6-3; Laura Siegemund bt Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3); Kristyna Pliskova bt Roberta Vinci 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Women’s doubles: Darija Jurak/Anastasia Rodionova bt Lucie Hradecka/Katerina Siniakova 7-5, 6-2; Kiki Bertens/Johanna Larsson bt Natela Dzalamidze/Veronika Kudermetova 7-6 (7), 6-3; Gabriela Dabrowski/Jelena Ostapenko bt Chia-Jung Chuang/Saisai Zheng 6-3, 6-1; Irina-Camelia Begu/Daria Kasatkina bt Kateryna Bondarenko/Elina Svitolina 5-7, 7-6 (3), 1-0 (6); Mandy Minella/Anastasija Sevastova bt Cagla Buyukakcay/Natalia Vikhlyantseva 6-1, 6-2.