Elena Rybakina And Paula Badosa Set Up Exciting Clash In Dubai With Easy Wins
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Elena Rybakina and Paula Badosa will meet in the third round of the 2025 Dubai Championships after they both easily won their second-round matches.
Both of these players opened the play in Dubai. Rybakina was the first player to step onto Court 1, while Badosa opened the play on Court 3 at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre in Dubai.
For Rybakina, this was her first match at the event this year. As the sixth seed, she had a first-round bye, so she avoided having to play that match, starting in the second round of the event.
It seemed that her second-round opponent could be the recent Qatar Open finalist, Jelena Ostapenko, but the Latvian player surprisingly lost to Moyuka Uchijima in the first round of the event.
Rybakina never played against Uchijima before, so this was their first meeting. The Kazakhstani player established her dominance early in the match when she broke her opponent's serve in her first return game.
After that, Rybakina held her serve in the first set every single time without facing a break point, which meant that she was able to win the set easily 6-3.
In the second set, the 2022 Wimbledon champion started not with one but with two breaks. That meant she was able to jump out into a 4-0 lead, which seemed as too big a deficit to recover for Uchijima.
The Japanese player had her only two chances to break in the following game, but after she couldn't use those, nothing could stop Rybakina from winning the match 6-3, 6-2 to reach the third round of the event.
The 25-year-old player will certainly want to impress with her performances in Dubai to avoid facing further questions about her coaching situation following the suspension of her coach, Stefano Vukov.
Rybakina's third-round opponent in Dubai will be Paula Badosa. The Spanish player is the ninth seed in the United Arab Emirates, which means she had to play her first-round match.
Her opponent was Lulu Sun, and Badosa easily won that match 6-3, 6-4. In the second round, the former WTA World No. 2 took on Elise Mertens, who displayed some great form before coming to Dubai.
Before losing in the third round of the Qatar Open, the Belgian player was on a seven-match winning streak, so Badosa knew she had to be at her best to beat her opponent. And she was.
Badosa played some exceptional tennis. She broke Mertens' serve twice in the opening set while also saving one break point to win it 6-2. Although it seemed she couldn't be any more dominant, she won the second set without facing a single break point.
The Spanish player won 21 of the first 24 points, completely overwhelming her opponent. She didn't have any issues to win the match 6-2, 6-1, setting up a meeting with Rybakina.
The two players will meet in the third round, with the day of their meeting yet to be determined, as rain continues to trouble the organizers in Dubai.
