Ailing Emma Raducanu failed to take advantage of the changing situation at the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Championships on Monday, which saw more disappointing withdrawals, losing in three sets to lucky loser Antonia Ruzic of Croatia.
I think players should get points [for not playing]? Not really. We already have the mandatory one. We get zeros for everything on our rankings. I don’t think it’s fair for players to get docked points. I think we should at least have an optional 1000, like the guys do with Monte-Carlo. Yeah, that’s a bit harsh, in my opinion. Coco Gauff
The British No. 1 faced an unexpected change of opponent just hours before her first-round match when Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who came into the quarter-finals of the Doha Open here after a career-best run through qualifying, withdrew from the tournament and was replaced by Ruzic.
Cocciaretto, the world number 40, made a quick turnaround and went to Dubai for qualifying just a day after the Doha defeat, winning her two matches to reach the main draw, but then withdrew due to a left thigh injury.
Canada’s No. 11 Victoria Mboko also dropped out on Monday with a right elbow injury, a problem that first emerged during her victory over Elena Rybakina in the Last 8 in Doha.
Mboko, who reached the Top 10 of the PIF WTA rankings for the first time in her career on Monday, became the seventh withdrawal from this year’s tournament.
“It’s a lot of matches and the tournaments are very close together, so it’s difficult to make that happen,” Mboko said after her semi-final victory in Qatar when asked about the quick turnaround between Doha and Dubai. “Of course you want to manage your tournament schedule as best as possible.
“From a recovery point of view, and by doing good physio, good fitness and good routines in that sense allow you to last longer in that sense. I’m trying to improve that in a way. We’re always focused on that, but I think it’s important to also prioritize everything else off the court that’s not tennis related.”
Mboko’s replacement was lucky loser Petra Marcinko of Croatia, who faced Romanian Jaqueline Cristian in the first round on Monday evening and was routinely dismissed 6-1 6-1.
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Tournament director Salah Tahlak is less than happy with the late withdrawals of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek on Thursday, and has called for tougher punishments for players who withdraw.
“It was an unfortunate surprise when we received news of Aryna and Iga’s withdrawal,” he said this weekend. And the reasons for the withdrawal were a bit strange. Iga said she wasn’t mentally ready to compete, while Sabalenka said she had some minor injuries.
“So I don’t know. I think there should be harsher punishments for the players.” [for withdrawing]not just fines, they should be ranking points.
“I even asked [tournament] Doctor, what is the injury? He said it is a minor injury, and not one that would force her to withdraw from the tournament. And for Iga I asked: ‘Isn’t this a strange decision?’ ”
Last year, both Sabalenka and Swiatek were in trouble for failing to fulfill their obligations, and they are clearly willing to do so again to take care of their health.
The WTA Tour’s top players have long complained about the tough schedule, especially the number of mandatory events, and many are threatening to choose their tournaments more carefully, which appears to be the case here.
Under current rules, top players must compete in the 4 Grand Slams, 10 WTA 1000 events, 6 WTA 500s and the WTA Finals, if they qualify.
Coco Gauff, who was angry with Cocciaretto in Doha, rejected calls for players to receive a higher penalty for late withdrawals,
“I definitely don’t think players do it, they just don’t want to play,” she told the media. “I don’t think it’s that decision.
“You see burnout all year long. Even though it might not affect you now, it will affect you later. I feel like I’ve always struggled with this part of the season, I guess, just because of the transition and things like that.”
Players are already at risk of sanctions if they skip a mandatory WTA 1000 tournament without a legitimate justification such as illness or injury, although they are allowed three schedule-based absences per season, which results in zero ranking points but does not result in financial penalties.
“Do I think players should get points? Not really,” added Gauff, the world number 5. “We already have the mandatory one. We get zeros on our ranking for everything.
“I don’t think it’s fair that players get points. I think we should at least have an optional 1000, like the men do at Monte Carlo. Yeah, I think that’s a bit harsh in my opinion.”
The seventh lucky loser, Antonia Ruzic, scored her first career Top 30 win with a three-set defeat to Emma Raducanu in the first round, recovering after losing a 5-3 lead in the second set and overturning a 2-0 deficit in the third set.
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Cocciaretto was the latest in a long line of players to withdraw from Dubai, with seven lucky losers already in the main draw.
Ruzic, who lost in the first qualifying round, got off to a flying start against Raducanu, who was hoping for a good run in Dubai after a disappointing retirement in the opening round in Doha due to illness against Colombia’s Camila Osorio.
The Croatian, ranked 67th, was a semi-finalist at the Hobart International in January, beating Emiliana Arango, Solana Sierra and Olga Danilovic before losing in the semi-finals to eventual champion Cocciaretto.
However, the 23-year-old had not won a match outside of that streak this year and was currently on a five-match losing streak, spanning from her semi-final in Hobart to her qualifying loss in Dubai.
That was all about to change when the lucky loser took advantage of an aberrant Raducanu, whose fitness continues to impact the British No. 1’s form, and she suffered a first-round exit, 6-1 5-7 6-2, her third straight defeat as she struggled physically.
Raducanu requested a medical timeout and received treatment after easily dropping the opening set to Ruzic in just 30 minutes, and was treated by a doctor.
After taking some pills, there was some improvement early in the second, as Raducanu found enough resilience to force a third, in which Ruzic took control and took the win after 2 hours and 19 minutes on track.
Since reaching the final of Romania’s Transylvania Open, Raducanu has struggled in each of her subsequent matches, and a successive first-round exit at a WTA 1000 event is a blow for the world number 25.
Dubai was a missed opportunity for Raducanu to improve her current ranking, and the tennis gods tried to help, as her draw might have opened with the withdrawal of Muchova, a likely second-round opponent.
Ninth seed and 2019 Dubai Duty champion Belinda Bencic came from a set down to escape Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in three sets to open her campaign on Day 2 of the WTA 1000
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In other action on Day 2, Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic came from a set down to escape Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, 2-6 6-1 6-2, the 9th seed and 2019 Dubai Duty champion who opened her campaign with a 3-set victory in an hour and 39 minutes. It was Bencic’s first match since the Australian Open.
Denmark’s 12th seed Clara Tauson improved her head-to-head against American Sofia Kenin to 3-1 overall with a 7-6(4)6-2 win in an hour and 26 minutes after the former Australian Open champion served at 6-5 for the first set. Tauson faces another American lucky loser Peyton Stearns in round 2.
US number 14 Emma Navarro improved to 3-0 overall against Romanian qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse, with a 6-4 7-5 win to reach the second round, where she will next face Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
Another American, 18-year-old Iva Jovic, the 16th seed, endured a mixed affair against lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova of Uzbekistan, winning 6-1 1-6 6-1 to set up a second-round match with her former compatriot, 20-year-old Russian, Diana Shnaider.
Romanian Sorana Cirstea, the Cluj-Napoca champion who defeated Raducanu in the final, stopped Aliaksandra Sasnovich, a Belarusian qualifier, in her opening match 6-3 7-6(6), extending her winning streak to 6. Cirstea was a semi-finalist in Dubai in 2024 and quarter-finalist in 2025.
Australia’s Daria Kasatkina won her fifth match in six meetings against Germany’s Laura Siegemund in her opener, winning 6-2, 6-3 in 88 minutes, and she now meets defending Dubai champion 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva, the fifth seed from Russia.
In an all-qualifier opener, France’s Varvara Gracheva defeated Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 7-5 1-6 6-4 after a 2 hour 24 minute scrap to reverse the result of their first round match in Hobart last month. Gracheva is introduced to Jessica Pegula, the fourth-seeded American.
Wild card Janice Tjen upset Leylah Fernandez, who served twice for the first set at 5-4 and 6-5, and advanced to the third round of a WTA 1000 event for the first time with a straight-sets win.
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In a second-round encounter, wildcard Janice Tjen of Indonesia advanced with a 7-6(5) 6-4 defeat of Leylah Fernandez after the Canadian served twice for the first set at 5-4 and 6-5. It is the 20-year-old’s first appearance in the third round of a WTA 1000 event, and her reward is a meeting with No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova of the US.
Monday night’s nightcap match with Anisimova was canceled because Barbora Krejcikova, the two-time Grand Slam champion from the Czech Republic, withdrew with an injury.
The 2023 Dubai champion suffered a pulled left thigh during her first-round meeting with Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, whom she defeated in straight sets on Sunday.
Lucky loser Anastasia Zakharova, a 24-year-old Russian, defeated Japanese qualifier Moyuka Uchijima for the first time in their four meetings, 6-2 6-4, in 80 minutes.
In the later matches on Monday, 2024 Dubai finalist Anna Kalinskaya of Russia eased past 2022 champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 2-6 6-1 6-4 in a nail-biting first-round skirmish. Kalinskaya improved to 4-0 overall against Ostapenko and 2-0 in Dubai, having also defeated the Latvian in the 2024 third round.
Spain’s Paula Badosa passed the Katerina Siniakova test with a 6-3 7-5 win over the Czech to reach a second-round meeting with seventh seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.
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