Iga Swiatek easily advanced to the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championships by defeating Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-4.
The world No. 1 continued her winning streak against the top 20 players, making it 13 consecutive victories. Swiatek looked confident throughout the match against her opponent from Ukraine, who has previously won this tournament twice.
The Polish player finished the match in just an hour and 24 minutes. After winning the Qatar Open title in Doha the week before, Swiatek dominated the first set by winning seven games in a row.
The second set was more competitive, with five consecutive service breaks between the two players, but Swiatek ultimately came out on top.
Although Svitolina had won their most recent match by defeating Swiatek in the Wimbledon final last year, Swiatek demonstrated her skill by advancing to the quarter-finals of another tournament.
“I felt like she played better in the second set,” Swiatek said afterwards. “It wasn’t that easy to just finish points and win points.
“I wanted to stay focused and proactive and kind of make decisions but not too risky. I felt like we were both good in the longer rallies, so I needed to really push in the right time to make pressure. I think decision making and placement was the most important thing.”
In the quarterfinals, The Pole will face the sixth seed Zheng Qinwen, who defeated Anastasia Potapova 6-3 6-2.
Coco Gauff had a tough start but managed to beat Karolina Pliskova 2-6 6-4 6-3. Pliskova, the third seed, ended her Czech opponent’s 11-match winning streak and now leads their head-to-head 2-1.
Pliskova recently won her first title since 2020 and climbed from world No. 78 to 36 after reaching the semi-finals in Doha but had to withdraw due to injury.
Gauff, the current US Open champion, defied expectations and won after a shaky start in the first set. She will now face unseeded Anna Kalinskaya in the next round, who surprised the ninth seed Jelena Ostapenko with a 6-4 7-5 victory.
Fourth seed Elena Rybakina had a tough match against Magdalena Frech, where she had to play three sets to secure a 7-6(5) 3-6 6-4 victory.
Rybakina, who lost to Swiatek in the Qatar final last week, spent two hours and 39 minutes on the court in a back-and-forth battle. She had to make a comeback in the first set after being down 5-3, eventually winning the tiebreak.
In the next round, Rybakina will face Jasmine Paolini, an unseeded Italian, who defeated the eighth seed Maria Sakkari in straight sets in Dubai.
