Belinda Bencic came back from a set and a break down to beat Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 after 3 hours and 27 minutes in the second longest match of the year at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Bencic has won 15 WTA Tour level matches and clinched two titles in Adelaide 2 International and Abu Dhabi.
Kostyuk won the first set in the tie-break 9-7 and went up a break in the opening game of the second set. Bencic clawed her way back in the second set and clinched the second set in the tie-break 7-5.
The third set started with four consecutive breaks. Bencic earned the decisive break in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead. The Swiss player saved two break points, when she was serving for the match at 5-4, before clinching the win on her first match point. Bencic set up a match against Karolina Muchova.
Kostyuk is 0-13 against top 10 rivals and lost four of these matches this year.
Number 5 seed Coco Gauff cruised past world number 44 Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-0 6-4 in 70 minutes in the second round.
Gauff is aiming to become the first teenager to win the Dubai singles title. Martina Hingis is still the youngest champion in the history of the Dubai tournament with her title in 2001, when she was 20 years old.
Gauff converted three of her five break points and saved two break points she faced to cruise through to a bagel win in the first set.
Gauff went up a 4-1 lead in the second set. Sasnovich clawed her way back to draw level to 4-4. Gauff hit a forehand winner to hold for 5-4 and broke serve at love to seal the win.
Gauff won 90% of her first serve points and broke Sasnovich six times during the match.
The US player set up a match against last year’s Wimbledon champion and 2023 Australian Open finalist Elena Rybakina in a clash between top 10 players. Rybakina beat Marie Bouzkova 7-5 6-2 with six aces in the opening round.
Gauff beat Rybakina 6-4 7-6 (7-3) in their only previous head-to-head match in Toronto last August.
Karolina Pliskova, who won in Dubai in 2015, cruised past Maria Sakkari 6-1 6-2 in just 69 minutes to secure her spot in the third round.
“I am happy with the way I played. It’s not every day you beat the sixth seed 6-1 6-2 ! I also played a really good match in the first round. I have had many good tournaments in the past here. I missed last year, so I am happy to be happy. I have my family with me, my sister and her baby, so I feel quite relaxed”, said Pliskova.
Madison Keys beat last year’s WTA Finals champion Caroline Garcia 7-5 6-4. Both players traded early breaks before Keys earned another break and held on her serve to seal the first set. Keys broke Garcia in the third game of the second set and never looked back before serving out the match.
“Caroline is such an amazing player and had a great end to last year. She has been playing at her top level”, said Keys.
Jessica Pegula overcame a tough match to beat Viktoriya Tomova 6-2 5-7 6-1. Tomova bounced back from a first set loss by breaking serve three times to race out to race out to a 5-1 lead. Pegula clawed her way back to 5-5, but Tomova won the final two games to seal the second set 7-5 forcing the match to the decider. Pegula won the first five games of the decider before closing out the match in the seventh game.
