In her first match since winning the Australian Open last month, Aryna Sabalenka was sent crashing out of the Dubai Tennis Championships by Donna Vekic of Croatia.
Vekic fought back from a set and a break down to claim her sixth victory in eight meetings with Sabalenka, prevailing 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-0 to hand the world No 2 her second defeat of the season.
“At all times, I didn’t give up,” said Vekic, the world No 31, after avenging her defeat to Sabalenka in last year’s Australian Open quarter-finals. “I didn’t stop believing that I can win. I just kept fighting.
“To be honest, I didn’t have big expectations coming to Dubai. I told my coach that I’m taking this week as half holidays. I can tell you I spent more time on the beach than on the court. Maybe that’s a good way going forward.”
Indeed, Vekic quipped in her on-court interview that she was “on the beach already” after Sabalenka snatched a break at the beginning of the second set. Yet she had competed relentlessly up to that point, breaking the Belarusian as she served for the opening set before saving three consecutive set points on her own serve to force a tiebreak, and her determination never wavered.
“[In the] second set, I was just trying to go for it a bit more, because she was definitely outpowering me in the important points in the first set,” said Vekic, who defeated Sabalenka at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. “I was like, ‘OK, if you want to have a chance of winning, you have to go for it more.’”
The 27-year-old achieved that goal with aplomb, breaking seven times and hammering an impressive 42 winners, including 14 aces. Vekic also made a dozen fewer unforced errors than Sabalenka, for whom old demons resurfaced in the form of eight double faults – half of which came in the deciding set, where her game and composure began to unravel.
Sabalenka’s earliest defeat at a WTA 1000 event since last May’s Italian Open was a chastening affair. Accustomed to controlling her own fate with the force and aggression of her shot-making, the second seed had matters taken out of her hands by one of the few players equipped with the firepower to match her blow for damaging blow.
“I feel like the conditions here don’t fit me well at all,” said Sabalenka, who has never advanced beyond the last eight at the tournament and, like Vekic, struggled at times in the swirling wind.
“It’s really tricky for me to compete here in Dubai. Really tricky court for me.
“I would say that the whole match I was leading, I was winning. I won the first set. I was up with a break. [But] I didn’t feel like I was up. The level was so bad today from me.
“At the end she stepped in and started playing way [more] aggressively, because she saw that I’m not playing my best at all. I think that’s why she came back from that score that easily, because it was just like, who’s more lucky, you know? The level wasn’t there at all.”
Ironically, for all Vekic’s willingness to fight fire with fire, the match turned on an outstanding piece of defensive play from the Croatian. A point away from falling a double break behind in the second set, she scrambled wide to retrieve a forehand before rapidly retracing her steps as Sabalenka sent a booming backhand approach into the opposite corner. At full stretch, Vekic manufactured a floating slice that the Belarusian allowed to drift past her, confident the ball would fly long.
To Sabalenka’s evident dismay, it landed plum on the baseline. The Belarusian would win only one more game.
“I think I got a bit lucky with that slice passing shot,” said Vekic. “That’s tennis, things can turn around in one point. At all times I didn’t give up. I didn’t stop believing that I can win. I just kept fighting.”