Dubai: Former champion Sara Errani led a handful of top stars into the second round of qualifying on the opening day of the Dubai Tennis Championships at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium on Saturday.
Errani, a champion here in 2016, was the quickest winner on Day One with a 6-1, 6-0 win in 53 minutes over a hapless Shuko Aoyama of Japan. Joining the 2012 French Open runner-up will be US Open champion Samantha Stosur after the Australian fought her way past last-minute alternate Ankita Raina 6-4, 6-4 in the last match on Court One yesterday.
Su-Wei Hsieh, a champion at the 2016 Al Habtoor Tennis Champion also went through the second round of qualifiers with a hard-fought 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 win over Slovakia’s Kristina Kucova, while fast-improving Belarussian Aryna Sabalenka blew off China’s Lin Zhu 6-1, 6-3 in a little over an hour of Court One action.
“Yes, that was the basic idea … stay aggressive and give her no time to settle down to her game,” Sabalenka told Gulf News.
“I have come here with a lot of expectations, and the ideal thing would be to enter the main draw and see how far I can go into the week. But for the time-being it is one match at a time for me,” the 19-year-old added.
In a battle between two of the best Arab players, Ons Jabeur of Tunisia got the measure of Omani Fatma Al Nabhani before winning 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2 in an hour and 56 minutes. Jabeur will next play Lesia Tsurenko from the Ukraine.
Action will continue at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium on Sunday with the second round of qualifiers.
