Defending champion Rybakina survives Volynets scare in Abu Dhabi

Elena Rybakina came from a set down to kickstart her Abu Dhabi Open title defence with a victory over American qualifier Katie Volynets.

In her first appearance since her fourth-round loss to eventual winner Madison Keys at the Australian Open, Rybakina emerged a 2-6 6-4 6-4 victor in two hours and 27 minutes.

Rybakina, however, started poorly in the contest, landing only 48% of her first serves and committing 25 unforced errors as Volynets raced into a deserved early lead.

But the world number five improved significantly in the second, not facing a single break point throughout as she ensured the match would go the distance.

Rybakina took her momentum and strong serving into the decider, though with a chance to clinch it, saw her serve broken due to a lapse. Volynets needed a second break point to do so, pulling things back to 5-4.

However, Rybakina found four clean winners in the final game to deny her American opponent a first top-five win.

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The Kazakh's reward for her victory was a quarter-final clash with Ons Jabeur after she eased past qualifier Wakana Sonobe 6-3 6-3 in just over an hour.

Earlier, two wild cards, 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova and 2023 Abu Dhabi winner Belinda Bencic, set up a meeting in the last eight after straight-sets wins.

Vondrousova, who beat Emma Raducanu in her opening match of the tournament, defeated fourth seed Yulia Putintseva 6-2 6-3.

Bencic's win was even more emphatic. The Swiss, who returned from maternity leave last October, whitewashed lucky loser Veronika Kudermetova 6-0 6-0 in 63 minutes.

Indeed, Bencic is the first player to win a WTA-500 main draw match with a 6-0 6-0 scoreline since Stuttgart 2022, 1024 days ago.

But it was a day to forget for Australian Open semi-finalist Paula Badosa after she was beaten comfortably by world number 39 Linda Noskova 6-4 6-1.