Emma Raducanu claimed a 6-4 6-2 victory over Maria Sakkari in the Dubai Championships on Sunday to end her recent losing run.
Former US Open champion Raducanu had a wild card entry and will face 14th-seeded Karolina Muchova in the second round.
Raducanu came into the match on the worst run of results in her career, having lost four successive matches, but she made the ideal start with a break of serve in the opening game and rounded off a 6-4 6-2 victory in fine fashion with her third ace of the 90-minute contest.
“I just tried to stay really focused on the point in front of me,” Raducanu said.
“I think there were some momentum shifts throughout the match, and I think when I got broken twice early in the sets, I just regrouped really well and I managed to break back both times.
“I was really pleased with how I fought and competed against Maria, she’s a top player.
“She’s been as high as No 3 in the world so I’m just really proud of my performance.”
Raducanu has now won all three of her matches against Sakkari without dropping a set, including in the US Open semi-finals in 2021 and last year at Wimbledon.
“We play quite similar. She’s really athletic. I think I’m not necessarily going to give all my tactics away, but it’s just a very difficult match every time we play so I’m happy to have won on these occasions in all big tournaments,” Raducanu added.
“It’s my first time spending a little bit of time here and I’ve really enjoyed it. I think what I love most is that everything is open late and I’m a big night owl.”
Raducanu had failed to capitalise on wild card entries into tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Doha over the last two weeks, losing in the first round both times to Marketa Vondrousova and Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Those losses followed another first-round defeat to Cristina Bucsa in Singapore and a hammering by Iga Swiatek after she had reached the third round of the Australian Open for the first time.
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