Defending champion Belinda Bencic and two-time winner Elina Svitolina have crashed out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in the opening round.
Fourth seed Bencic lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 1-6, 1-6, while third seed Svitolina suffered a shock 2-6, 1-6 defeat to qualifier Jennifer Brady.
.@jennifurbrady95 moves on at #DDFTennis 💪
— wta (@WTA) February 18, 2020
She claims it over Svitolina, 6-2, 6-1. pic.twitter.com/UwMHTkVO2p
And she's through to the next round @NastiaPav defeats depending champion Bencic. This is going to be an interesting week #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/RhSgqMlMv5
— Dubai Tennis Champs (@DDFTennis) February 18, 2020
Elsewhere, Kristina Mladenovic overcame Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4, 6-3 and Katerina Siniakova beat fellow Czech, Karolina Muchova 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.
Victory Team's Ahmad Al Fahim takes on Dubai T100 for third year running
Abu Dhabi GP app serves as one-stop platform for race week attendees
Noskova beats Gauff to reach WTA Finals semis, Pegula stays in hunt
Etihad Airways and McLaren Racing take to the skies with racing team livery
