Leylah Annie Fernandez was ousted from the Dubai women’s tennis tournament in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, suffering a 6-3, 6-4 second-round loss to Italian Jasmine Paolini, 57e world racket in the WTA rankings.
The 21-year-old Quebecer, who clocks in at 33e world ranking, struggled on tiebreak points. Her percentage of points won on the first serve was also lower than that of her 28-year-old opponent.
Jasmine Paolini will face Maria Sakkari of Greece, who is the eighth seed in the tournament, in a round of 16 match. Former tournament champions Jelena Ostapenko and Elina Svitolina also continued.
Earlier this week, Fernandez and her playing partner Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia fell to American Sofia Kenin and her Russian teammate Mirra Andreeva in the curtain-raiser of the women’s doubles tournament.
In other matches…
For her part, Aryna Sabalenka suffered her first defeat since winning the Australian Open title. This occurred at the expense of an old rival.
Sabalenka, the second-ranked player in the world, let slip a one-set, 2-0 lead to eventually lose 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0 to Croatian Donna Vekic in the second round.
Furthermore, the third player in the world Elena Rybakina avoided another surprise by taking advantage of the retirement of Victoria Azarenka. Azarenka won the first set 6-4, but lost the second 6-2 when the pain became too intense to continue.
The rivalry between Sabalenka and Vekic dates back eight years, and Vekic dominated the Belarus player at the time. Sabalenka, however, turned the tide a year ago, after defeating Vekic in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, en route to winning her first career Grand Slam title.
According to Vekic, Sabalenka won “the biggest match” of their career duel on Tuesday, but his six victories in eight clashes should not be overlooked either.
Sabalenka led 5-3 before sealing the first set in a tiebreaker. The Belarus player, who has just taken a three-week break after her triumph in Australia, then took a 2-0 lead and was just one point away from moving to 3-0.
“I was already on the beach,” Vekic admitted, before a backhand cut winner deprived Sabalenka of the point, setting the table for the Croatian’s comeback.
Vekic then adopted a more aggressive approach and improved the precision of his shots, winning the next three games in the process. She then broke her rival to make the score 5-3, then served for the set after almost two hours of play.
Sabalenka, who had to negotiate her first match in three sets this year, appeared irritated by the turn of events, and she repeatedly resorted to her second serve ball. Sabalenka found herself down 0-3 in the third set after committing her sixth double fault of the match, and she committed two more afterward, widening the lead to 0-5.
A few minutes later, Vekic won a ninth game in a row to claim a first victory against a top 2 player in the world since 2019.
Additionally, Wimbledon champion and seventh seed Marketa Vondrousova defeated Peyton Stearns 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 for the third time in eight months.