Dubai (AFP) – Jasmine Paolini’s defence of her Dubai Championships title ended on Wednesday with the Italian knocked out in the last 16 by Sofia Kenin. The American, ranked 27th in the world, defeated the fourth seed 6-4, 6-0 in just over an hour. Kenin raced to a 5-2 lead in the opening set before closing the door on a Paolini fight back. Any hopes Paolini had of forcing the match to a deciding set were undone when she took a bad fall early in the second set. Rolling over her right ankle mid-rally, she played on but was obviously suffering.
This was Kenin’s first win over a top five ranked player since her victorious title run at the 2020 Australian Open. Kenin’s reward for defeating last year’s Wimbledon and French Open finalist was a quarter-final date with Elena Rybakina after the Kazakh sixth seed overcame a tight battle with Paula Badosa 4-6, 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/2). Paolini’s loss came after a tricky start to her title defence on Tuesday. She had reached match point before rain forced the players off the court. Over four hours later, the world No. 4 returned to win the final point, beating German qualifier Eva Lys 6-2, 7-5.
The reigning Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen suffered a similar fate to Paolini, with the Chinese seventh seed beaten in three sets by Kenin’s fellow American, Peyton Stearns. The 23-year-old Stearns, ranked 46 in the world, fought back from a set down against last year’s Australian Open finalist to win the second round tie held over after Tuesday’s rain 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. After a brief break, Stearns returned to face 12th seed Mirra Andreeva in the last 16, where her Dubai run ended, losing 6-1, 6-1 to the young Russian. Waiting for Andreeva in the quarter-finals is second seed Iga Swiatek. The Pole, beaten in the Australian Open semi-finals last month, won the last eight games to beat Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska 7-5, 6-0.
American eighth seed Emma Navarro made it into the last 16 after defeating this month’s Abu Dhabi Open winner Belinda Bencic 7-6 (8/6), 2-6, 6-3. But another American, fifth seed Jessica Pegula, was stopped 6-3, 7-6 (10/8) by the Czech Republic’s Linda Noskova. Earlier Wednesday, tennis officials said Emma Raducanu was targeted by “a man who exhibited fixated behaviour” after the former US Open champion was reduced to tears on court. The 22-year-old Briton was down 2-0 in the first set against Karolina Muchova on Tuesday when she approached the umpire, then briefly took refuge behind the umpire’s chair. Muchova went over to see what was wrong before the 2021 New York champion Raducanu reappeared, wiping away tears with her towel.
The Women’s Tennis Association said it would ban the man, who had been sitting in the first few rows of the crowd in Raducanu’s match, after what it called “the security incident in Dubai.”
© 2024 AFP
