Karolina Muhova, the 112nd ranked WTA player, produced the surprise of the day at WTA Dubai (category 1000), beating Belinda Bencic in straight sets 6-1, 6-4.

>> Two-time Grand Slam champion lost in just 57 minutes in WTA Dubai round of 16

Belinda Bencic, defeat by Karolina Muchova (112 WTA)

The Swiss Olympic champion of Tokyo lost the first set flatly, the score 6-1, Belinda lost her serve twice. In addition, Bencic was unable to cause problems with the return in the first set.

Muhova continued to have a higher percentage of points won per serve, and against Bencic she remained scoreless in the break category for the rest of the game.

The Swiss gave the impression that she had the strength to get back into the match by leveling at 4, but then dropped the next two games and left the court down. The match lasted an hour and 25 minutes.

They played on Wednesday at the WTA in Dubai

Jessica Pegula – Ana Bohdan 6-4, 6-3

Karolina Plishkova – Angelina Kalinina 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-2

Madison Keys – Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-1

Karolina Mukhova – Belinda Bencic 6-1, 6-4

Know:

• Romania no longer has a singles representative in Dubai, with Iryna Begu defeated in the first round, Sorana Kirstya eliminated in the second round on Tuesday and Ana Bohdan in the round of 16.

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships runs from February 19 to 25 on hard, is part of the “WTA 1000” category and has a total prize pool of $2,788,468. Simona Halep won the tournament in 2015 and 2020, and the last edition went to Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.

>> Ana Bohdan was eliminated in the 1/8 finals of WTA Dubai as the third favorite