Raducanu Snaps Her Four-Match Losing Streak Against Sakkari In Dubai
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Emma Raduacnu finally ended her losing streak with an impressive win over Maria Sakkari at the 2025 Dubai Championships.
Raducanu has struggled a lot on the tennis courts lately. She started the season with a couple of solid wins at the Australian Open, but after that, the British player lost four matches in a row.
Iga Swiatek beat her in Melbourne, Cristina Bucsa outplayed her in Singapore, Marketa Vondrousova bested Raducanu in Abu Dhabi, and Ekaterina Alexandrova got her revenge for the Australian Open loss in Doha.
Thanks to her huge marketing appeal, Raducanu received another wild card for the WTA 1000 in Dubai, and her first-round opponent again wasn't easy. She took on the former World No. 3, Maria Sakkari.
Sakkari herself has struggled in recent months, but she has managed to record a few impressive wins already. But in this match, it was the former US Open champion who found her range first.
Raducanu broke already in the opening game of the match, and after four games, she increased her lead to 3-1. But as in her previous matches, the 22-year-old struggled to keep her advantage for a long time.
Sakkari broke back, and before the balls were changed for the first time in the match, the score was tied at 3-3. But it was in the last game with the old balls that Raducanu managed to break again, and that proved to be a crucial break.
Despite facing a 0-30 deficit when serving for the set, Raducanu stayed calm under pressure and won the opening set of this match 6-4.
She had a perfect start to the second set as well. In almost no time, the Brit was up 2-0 and 40-30 on her opponent's serve. But she lost that lead, and Sakkari even managed to break back to level the score at 2-2.
Raducanu even fell behind 15-30 in the following game, but that was when she started to be unplayable for her opponent. The British player absolutely dominated the remainder of the match, winning all the following games.
Raducanu won the match 6-4, 6-2, in an hour and 20 minutes to reach the second round of the 2025 Dubai Championships. It marks her first win since January 16th, which was exactly a month ago.
In the second round of the tournament, Raducanu will play against the fourteenth-seeded Karolina Muchova. She never played against Muchova, so this will mark their first meeting.
The winner of this match will then take on one of the American players in the third round. The third-seeded Coco Gauff will take on either Amanda Anisimova or McCartney Kessler, with the winner progressing to the third round against Raducanu or Muchova.
