Our reporters Ahmed Rizvi and Jon Turner are at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium to bring you live reports from all the games.
Read more: Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships: The National's full coverage
Day 1 full results
CoCo Vandeweghe (USA) beat 6-Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 7-6 (5), 6-1
Julia Goerges (GER) beat 8-Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 6-0, 6-1
Madison Brengle (USA) beat Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 6-4, 7-5
Andrea Petkovic (GER) beat Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-1
Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) beat Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) 6-2, 7-6 (1)
Carolina Garcia (FRA) beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (SVK) 6-4, 6-1
Last year’s finalist Pliskova exits in first round
Karolina Pliskova, the 2015 finalist, is a first round casualty this year following her 7-6, 6-1 loss to American CoCo Vandeweghe.
Vandeweghe, who beat Pliskova in the second round of Wimbledon last year, took the first set in the tie-break following a 52-minute battle, where neither player dropped her serve. There was just one break point in the set, in the fifth game, but Vandeweghe managed to save it.
The second set, however, took a completely different route as Vandeweghe broke Pliskova, the leading ace server in 2015 on the WTA Tour with 517 aces, three times to book a second round clash against Kristina Mladenovic.
No 8 Kuznetsova is first early casualty
Svetlana Kuznetsova has become the first big casualty of the 2016 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, crashing to a 6-0, 6-1 loss to German Julia Goerges.
Seeded No 8 here, Kuznetsova barely looked the part as she struggled to find answers to Goerges’ booming returns and groundstrokes and the first set was over in a mere 27 minutes, with the world No 18 failing to hold her serve even once. The German had 11 winners to Kuznetsova’s three in that set, and that stat was the biggest difference between the two.
The Russian, a French (2009) and US Open (2004) champion, did finally hold her serve in the fourth game of the second set to elicit a round of applause from her fans, but Goerges’ heady shotmaking proved just too good on the night. The match was over in a mere 55 minutes, with Goerges finishing with 28 winners to Kuznetsova’s four, despite having more unforced errors (15 to 9).
This was Kuznetsova’s fourth successive defeat since the three-time Dubai finalist’s second round exit from the Australian Open.
In the other match of the evening, France’s Caroline Garcia cruised past Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-4, 6-1 to set up a second round clash with third seed Carla Suarez Navarro.
Mladenovic enjoys short commute and advances to second round
Dubai resident Kristina Mladenovic is through to the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships following a comfortable 6-2, 7-6 win over Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine.
Mladenovic, who reached the last eight at the US Open last year and is ranked No 30 in the world at the moment, broke Tsurenko twice to take the opening set in 33 minutes, without facing a single break point on her serve.
The Frenchwoman did drop her serve three times in the second set and lost her way from 4-1 up, but came back strongly in the tie break to cruise to victory in an hour and 32 minutes.
Mladenovic, 22, will next meet the winner of the clash between the two big servers, last year’s runner up Karolina Pliskova and American Coco Vandeweghe.
Petkovic gets off to winning start
Andrea Petkovic brought her disappointing run of three consecutive defeats to an end with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Italian Camila Giorgi to reach the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Petkovic, who has not won a set in her last three matches, bolted off the blocks against an erratic Giorgi and wrapped up the first set 6-2, after failing to serve out the set at 5-1.
Broken four times in the opening set, Giorgi held her serve for the first time in the match early in the second set at 1-1, but that turned out to be her only hold of the match as Petkovic cruised through in just 63 minutes.
She now awaits the winner of the Belinda Bencic v Jelena Jankovic match.
Petkovic’s run of defeats started in Brisbane when she was drubbed 6-3, 6-0 by world No 142 Samantha Crawford. She then lost in the opening round of the Australian Open, again in straight sets to world No 109 Elizaveta Kulichkova, and was beaten by Belinda Bencic in her lone Fed Cup singles against the Swiss in the opening weekend of this month.
Main draw filled after Monday’s qualifying
The main draw for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships has been filled after the four qualifying places were claimed on Monday afternoon.
Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova needed three sets and a tie-break against the Czech Republic’s Denisa Allertova to win 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, while on Court 2, Tsvetana Pironkova, the Bulgarian No 1, booked her place with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 win over Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam.
In the most comfortable of the four qualifying matches, China’s Saisai Zheng prevailed 7-5, 6-1 against American Varvara Lepchenko, before Slovakian Jana Cepelova fought back from a second set wobble to beat another American in Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Pironkova will face world No 47 Barbora Strykova from the Czech Republic, Shvedova will take on No 7 seed and US Open finalist Roberta Vinci, Zheng will face another Italian in Sara Errani, while Cepelova contests her first round match with Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
Brengle tops Makarova
American Madison Brengle is set for a second-round clash with fourth seed Petra Kvitova after defeating Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 7-5 in the opening match of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Brengle, ranked No 60, dropped her serve in the opening game of the match, but broke back to level the scores at 2-2 and then broke the Russian in the 10th game to wrap up the first set.
Makarova, the world No 31, started the second set strongly, breaking Brengle twice to lead 4-0, but then dropped her serve in the sixth game and then again as she served for the set at 5-4. Brengle took advantage, holding her serve and then breaking again to close the match in an hour and 41 minutes.
Venus may have got off lightly
Venus Williams is probably quite glad she missed the 2016 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships if she knew which player had made it through qualifying to reach the first round.
Tsvetana Pironkova, the Bulgarian No 1, booked her place in the tournament with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 win over Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam on Monday.
Williams is a three-time winner in Dubai, a former world No 1 and a six-time grand slam champion, so why would Pironkova, ranked No 93 in the world, cause the American any concern?
Remarkably, Pironkova holds a 3-1 win-loss record over Williams, which includes two wins at Wimbledon, the tournament that Williams won four times in eight years. Indeed, the Bulgarian has won their last three encounters, all at grand slams, and has dropped just one set.
The general consensus is that Williams opted out of Dubai this year as she becomes more selective with her schedule during the latter stages of her career. But did Pironkova’s presence have an influence? Something to think about.
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Our reporters Ahmed Rizvi and Jon Turner are at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium to bring you live reports from all the games.
Keep checking back for regular updates.
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