Daily Times

DUBAI: The top two seeds in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships lost a combined three games while cruising to second-round wins on Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates. No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, the reigning French Open and U.S. Open champion, routed Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-1, 6-1, and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the reigning Australian Open champion, demolished the United States’ Lauren Davis 6-0, 6-1. Swiatek was on court for 72 minutes three days after capturing the Qatar TotalEnergies Open championship in Doha. Sabalenka completed her day’s work in 59 minutes. Third-seeded Jessica Pegula of the United States, who lost to Swiatek in the Doha final, got past Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 in the second round at Dubai. American Madison Keys upset fourth-seeded Caroline Garcia of France 7-5, 6-4. Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic crushed sixth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-1, 6-2, and the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova knocked out seventh-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. Fifth-seeded Coco Gauff of the United States, eighth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, 12th-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, 13th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 14th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia and 15th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus all advanced to the third round.