Swiatek stops Stephens to begin Dubai with a win

Iga Swiatek followed up on her weekend Doha WTA title by kicking off this week in Dubai with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of American Sloane Stephens.to book into the third round of the 1000 event on Tuesday.

The world No. 1 is riding the wave after collecting a third trophy in as many editions in Doha; she has a mission here after losing the final a year ago to Barbora Krejcikova.

Swiatek took two hours to keep a clean sheet at the Gulf tournaments this season.

She has now defeated 2018 US Open champion Stephens in all three of their meetings without the loss of a set.

The Pole twice rallied from a break down in the opening set and concluded the match with a fifth break of the American in the concluding game of the second set.

Swiatek admitted she was put off her stride on occasion by a small, but sometimes noisy crowd.

 “There were a lot of people shouting in Polish. I appreciate the support, but sometimes they were doing that when Sloane was walking to serve, a few seconds before the point. 

“I knew we should be used to that, but today was a little bit harder for me to focus.” 

Swiatek said that after squeezing through the first set, she had to lift in the second.

“There were many important changes I could do to make my game better; I knew if I played just a bit better it would be fine.”

Swiatek will next face Elina Svitolina after the Ukrainian defeated Tatiana Maris 6-3, 6-3.

“I don’t feel like I’m really tired (from her Doha title). I feel I can go with the flow in terms of the confidence that I felt after last week’s matches.

“It feels like we don’t have that much break between the (two) tournaments, so I treat it like one,”