Former champions Ostapenko and Svitolina up and running at Dubai Tennis Championships

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships may be stacked with the best players in the world, who between them have won countless titles, but there are only two former champions in the field.

Both of those players began their bids for more Dubai glory on Monday and came through relatively unscathed. Jelena Ostapenko, winner here in 2022, needed three sets to get past qualifier Xiyu Wang, before two-time winner Elina Svitolina defeated fellow Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina.

Ostapenko, 26, is aiming to continue her impressive start to the season; the Latvian has collected two trophies already and after Monday’s victory is level with Abu Dhabi champion Elena Rybakina for most match wins this year with 15.

In fact, the former French Open winner has only lost to one player this season, coming up short on all three occasions she has faced Victoria Azarenka. Ostapenko can breathe a sigh of relief that the Belarusian is in the opposite end of the draw, so they can only meet in the final. Azarenka, incidentally, faces fourth seed Rybakina in the second round on Tuesday.

When she’s in this form, Ostapenko is a problem for any player, and the ninth seed was ultimately too strong for world No 64 Wang, despite a late wobble towards the end of the first set. That opened the door for Wang to take a shock one-set lead, but Ostapenko quickly regrouped to clinch a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

So in the zone was Ostapenko by the end of the match, she didn’t even realise she’d won and was convinced there was at least another game to go.

“I miscounted the score, first time I think in my life! It's a good thing. I thought to continue the match, but it was over, so it's good for me,” said Ostapenko, who will play Swiss wildcard Lulu Sun in the second