Damian Kayat previews Iga Swiatek vs Leylah Fernandez and Coco Gauff vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the Round of 32 at the WTA Tour’s Dubai Tennis Championships.
2023 WTA Tour
WTA 1000
Dubai Tennis Championships
Aviation Club Tennis Centre, Dubai (Outdoor Hardcourt)
Selected Round of 32 Matches- 21st February
Iga Swiatek 1/10 | Leylah Fernandez 58/10
It’s nice to know that 21-year-old Pole Iga Swiatek is human. She dominated 2022 with such ruthlessness, regularly dishing out bagels left, right and centre.
But the start to this campaign has been fraught with difficulties. She lost comprehensively to Jessica Pegula in the United Cup before a chastening fourth-round exit at the hands of Elena Rybakina at the Aussie Open.
It seemed that her era of utter dominance had come to a premature end. Boy, were we wrong. She retained her Qatar Open title in historically emphatic fashion.
She received a bye in her first match and a quarter-final walkover victory against Belinda Bencic. But she only dropped five games total in her remaining three matches!
That included victories over the likes of Pegula and Collins. The Pole seemed intent on showing the world that the ruthlessly aggressive Swiatek is still in play this year.
And it’s hard to imagine anyone stopping her as she attempts to win her maiden Dubai title.
Was the 2021 US Open cursed? One could have easily envisaged Emma Radacanu and Leylah Fernandez dominating women’s tennis for years to come.
But both have fallen pretty hard from that pedestal. Canadian Fernandez has not plummeted as low as her British counterpart. She won her second Monterrey title last year and reached her maiden French Open quarterfinal.
Currently ranked 37th in the world, Fernandez has won just three of the seven main draw matches she has played this year. Her best result this year was a quarterfinal run in Auckland.
Fernandez has all the tools at her disposal. She hits the ball with massive power and has brilliant athleticism. But she does tend to buckle under pressure, committing plenty of unforced errors.
She looked pretty serene in her opening match, easily seeing off Julia Grabher in straight-sets.
The Verdict: Swiatek to win in straight sets at 32/100
They have only met once before, with Swiatek winning comfortably at last year’s Adelaide International. I can’t offer anything else other than a comfortable Swiatek win.
Fernandez falls into the category of a player that Swiatek loves to dominate. She can be flimsy on serve and the Pole will just murder her on return.
Coco Gauff 1/5 | Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7/2
World No.6 Coco Gauff received a bye in her first match here and will face Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round. She is coming off a week of mixed blessings in Qatar.
She and Jessica Pegula retained their doubles title in rousing fashion. And she began her singles campaign with a commanding straight-sets victory over Petra Kvitova.
But she would lose to Veronika Kudermetova in the next round. 18-year-old Gauff won her third WTA title earlier this year in Auckland. She also enjoyed a run to the final 16 at the Aussie Open.
She has been a bastion of consistency over the last 18 months but she will probably want a few more titles to her name. This week looks like the ideal time to add to her trophy collection.
28-year-old Belarusian Aliasandra Sasnovich is having a year to forget, picking up just one main-draw win thus far. She is 2-5 for the year in total, recently losing to Marino in Qatar qualifying.
But her opening performance here could be just what the doctor ordered. Sasnovich overcame the rapidly rising Rebeka Masarova with a fighting comeback performance.
Masarova won her maiden WTA title earlier this year and is fast emerging as a player to watch. Sasnovich is actually coming off a solid showing in 2022.
She ended the year with a record of 35-21, reaching two WTA singles finals (both of which came on hard surfaces). The victory over Peterson could be the lighting rod that reignites Sasnovich’s fire.
Verdict: Gauff to win at 1/5
Value Bet: Gauff to win in three at 31/10
This is set to be the first meeting between these two. And I always feel like the less fancied opponent can draw confidence from that. I can’t see Sasnovich going toe-to-toe with the American for three sets. I think there’s value in backing the crafty Belarusian to perhaps nick a set here.
