Elena Rybakina survived the challenging match presented by Magdalena Frech in the third round of the 2024 Dubai Tennis Championships season.
From 3-5 in the first set, the Kazakh tennis player rose and finally beat the Polish tennis player, Frech, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion beat Frech in straight sets in their previous meeting, namely in the first round of the WTA level 125 tournament which took place in Taipei in the 2018 season, but when they met in Dubai this season, she needed 2 hours 39 minutes to overcome the 53rd ranked player. world.
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Even so, Frech, who advanced to the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time at the Australian Open this season, is certain to debut in the top 50 next week.
Meanwhile, Rybakina has now reached the quarter-finals of the Dubai Tennis Championships for the second time in her career. He has advanced to the quarterfinals or better in five of the six tournaments he has played in so far in the 2024 season and overall, he is now 17-3. In the Middle East this month, he won 10 of 11 matches, after he won the title in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago and qualified for the final in Doha last week.
Waiting for Rybakina in the quarter-finals was the unseeded tennis player, Jasmine Paolini, who recovered from 1-3 in the first set and 0-2 in the second set to beat the second seed, Maria Sakkari with a convincing result 6-4, 6-2.
The Italian tennis player, Paolini, who currently occupies his career-highest ranking to date, world number 24, has won five of the last six sets he has played in Dubai after trailing with break opportunities. Now, she has advanced to the quarterfinals of the second WTA 1000 level tournament of her career after qualifying for the quarterfinals in Cincinnati last season.
Last season, Cincinnati was also the venue for the last meeting between Elena Rybakina and Paolini, who won after the Kazakh national withdrew due to injury. But the 2022 Wimbledon champions won their end-to-end meeting in Rome last season in straight sets.
Seventh seed Marketa Vondrousova also advanced to the quarterfinals after crushing 12th seed Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 6-2 in 75 minutes. For the sake of a place in the semifinals, the 2023 Wimbledon champion will face Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea who beat Croatian tennis player Donna Vekic 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.
