Dubai Tennis Championships: Top seed Sabalenka, title holder Muguruza advance; Sania-Hradecka reach doubles QF

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Dubai, February 16: Top seed Aryna Sabalenka and defending champion Garbine Muguruza came through their first-round matches unscathed at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday (February 15).

Belarusian Sabalenka made light work of 19-year-old Marta Kostyuk, sealing a 6-4 6-1 win in one hour and 15 minutes.

Standing in her way of a third consecutive quarter-final in Dubai is Petra Kvitova, who beat Camila Giorgi on Monday (February 14).

Last year's champion and fourth seed Muguruza began her title defence with a 7-6 (7-5) 2-6 6-2 win over Czech qualifier Katerina Siniakova in two hours and 24 minutes.

Spaniard Muguruza will face Veronika Kudermetova in the second round after the Russian beat former world number one Victoria Azarenka in straight sets earlier on Tuesday.

There were also wins for eighth seed Ons Jabeur and 10th seed Elina Svitolina against Vera Zvonareva and Mayar Sherif respectively.

Elsewhere, there was a shock as qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse dumped out third seed Paula Badosa 6-3 5-7 6-4.

Ninth seed Danielle Collins is also out after the American retired due to dizziness in the second set against Marketa Vondrousova.

Sofia Kenin failed to put up a fight as she went down 6-1 6-2 to Jelena Ostapenko.

Sania Mirza, Lucie Hradecka reach doubles QFs

In doubles, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and her partner Lucie Hradecka of Czech Republic advanced to the quarter-finals of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Mirza-Hradecka defeated the world number 12 Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands and Chan Hao-ching of Chinese Taipei 7(7)-6(3), 5-7, 11-9 in the round of 16 clash.

The Indo-Czech pair broke Demi Schuurs and Chan Hao-ching early to take a 3-1 lead. However their opponents recovered to make it a close finish, Mirza and Hradecka held their nerves to clinch the set in the tie-breaker.

Schuurs and Hao-ching came back strong in the second set as they clinched it to stretch the match into the super tie-breaker.

However, in the super tie-breaker, the duo who received wildcards for the WTA 500 tournament won and eventually booked their place in the quarter-finals.

Mirza and her partner Hradecka will next take on Japan's Shuko Aoyama and Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia in the quarters.

Aoyama and Krunic defeated fourth seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico 7(7)-6(5), 2-6, 10-5 in their round of 16 match.

(With OPTA/Agency Inputs)