First-round action kicked off on Monday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and the highlight of the day was Kim Clijsters‘ third return to competitive tennis, which was ended at first hurdle by in-form Garbine Muguruza.
Our Jimmie48 started photographing early in the morning, attending practice sessions of Marketa Vondrousova, Maria Sakkari, Sofia Kenin, Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina, Julia Goerges, Simona Halep, Dayana Yastremska, as well as Kim Clijsters’ final preparation before the big comeback.
My favorite action shots are those of Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, who beat America’s Alison Riske 7-6(3) 1-6 6-3 to advance to the second round. Also awesome are Barbora Strycova‘s celebration moments, as the Czech overcame American Amanda Anisimova 7-6(3) 2-6 6-4. Elise Mertens lost just three games against Wang Qiang in the first round and Marketa Vondrousova cruised past Anastasija Sevastova without dropping serve.
In addition, we have a few photos of the Simona Halep/Julia Goerges doubles pairing, who lost to Makoto Ninomiya and Yang Zhaoxuan.
Monday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships also featured a ceremony with WTA CEO Steve Simon commemorating 20 years of tournament.
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Hmmm. No mention of Slava’s first match back after having twins. She did win two slam titles.
JohnnyB, it’s good to have you to mention it! 🙂 Here I mentioned only matches that I have photos from.