Elena Rybakina in action at the Abu Dhabi Open Elena Rybakina in action at the Abu Dhabi Open Elena Rybakina came from a set down to kickstart her Abu Dhabi Open title defence with a victory over American qualifier Katie Volynets. (More Tennis News)nustabet gaming
In her first appearance since her fourth-round loss to eventual winner Madison Keys at the Australian Open, Rybakina emerged a 2-6 6-4 6-4 victor in two hours and 27 minutes.
Rybakina, however, started poorly in the contest, landing only 48% of her first serves and committing 25 unforced errors as Volynets raced into a deserved early lead.
But the world number five improved significantly in the second, not facing a single break point throughout as she ensured the match would go the distance.
Rybakina took her momentum and strong serving into the decider, though with a chance to clinch it, saw her serve broken due to a lapse. Volynets needed a second break point to do so, pulling things back to 5-4.
However, Rybakina found four clean winners in the final game to deny her American opponent a first top-five win.
Rybakina gets her title defense underway!The defending champion battles through a tricky encounter to defeat Volynets 2-6, 6-4, 6-4!#MubadalaAbuDhabiOpen pic.twitter.com/ONUqVePzR4
— wta (@WTA) February 5, 2025The Kazakh's reward for her victory was a quarter-final clash with Ons Jabeur after she eased past qualifier Wakana Sonobe 6-3 6-3 in just over an hour.
Earlier, two wild cards, 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova and 2023 Abu Dhabi winner Belinda Bencic, set up a meeting in the last eight after straight-sets wins.
Vondrousova, who beat Emma Raducanu in her opening match of the tournament, defeated fourth seed Yulia Putintseva 6-2 6-3.
Earlier in the match, a raucous crowd gave the Chinese players full support as they faced a formidable Pakistan. The game started slow with both teams struggling to find space in each other's defence. However, China kept control of the ball and made more attacks than Pakistan.
SAARI Faizal of Malaysia scored two goals for his side, while SAARI Fitri added another, and ANUAR Akhimullah opened the scoring in the first quarter.
Bencic's win was even more emphatic. The Swiss, who returned from maternity leave last October, whitewashed lucky loser Veronika Kudermetova 6-0 6-0 in 63 minutes.
Indeed, Bencic is the first player to win a WTA-500 main draw match with a 6-0 6-0 scoreline since Stuttgart 2022, 1024 days ago.
But it was a day to forget for Australian Open semi-finalist Paula Badosa after she was beaten comfortably by world number 39 Linda Noskova 6-4 6-1. nustabet gaming