The 2024 Dubai Tennis Championships has begun, and the WTA 1000 tour will continue with it. The tournament features all the top dogs of women’s tennis, and the first round of the tournament will have two giants. Victoria Azarenka will play against Elena Rybakina in their first match. The players from neighboring countries have set up a clash that is bound to draw immense attention from fans.

Rybakina and Azarenka have not had similar runs in the last year and earlier this year. Regardless, they will go all guns blazing to move on to the next round of the tournament.

Victoria Azarenka vs Elena Rybakina: Preview

Azarenka has not been in the top 10 of the WTA since 2013. However, she has been improving in the last year. In 2023, she managed to reach the semifinal of the tournament. Performance in the rest of the slams would not be as impressive. In the Masters series, she could not manage a better result than round 3. Her bad luck would continue in the WTA 250 and 500 series as well. 

Coming into 2024, she lost the first round of the Hong Kong Open. The Brisbane International would be successful for her as she played till the semifinal. She managed a run to the fourth round of the Australian Open and then the quarter-final of the Qatar Open. Now, she will aim to go far in Dubai.

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Rybakina, on the other hand, had one of her best seasons in 2023. While she couldn’t defend her title in Wimbledon, she managed a run to the final of the Australian Open. She then managed to win the Indian Wells and the Italian Open after a run to the final of the Miami Open. Rybakina slumped in the second half of the season but still managed a semifinal run in the Canadian and China Open.

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In 2024, Rybakina entered rank 4 and started the year by winning the Brisbane International. She exited early in the Australian Open but made up for the fall as she then won the Abu Dhabi Open. The Kazakhstani player would play till the final of the Qatar Open before losing to Iga Swiatek. Now, she aims to rectify the loss.

Azarenka vs Rybakina: Head-to-Head

The Kazakhstani player and the Belarusian player have played against each other twice on the WTA Tour. They played their first match at the 2022 Indian Wells Masters. It was a quick win for Rybakina as she managed to end their clash in straight sets for the final score to be 6-3, 6-4. They would then meet in the 2023 Australian Open semifinal. Azarenka gave a better fight to Rybakina this time as the first set reached the tie-breaker. However, Rybakina won once again and went on to play in the finals.

Prediction: Rybakina takes the cake

The medium-fast pace of the Dubai championships favors Rybakina more than Azarenka. Aside from the lay of the land, Rybakina’s momentum is unstoppable at the moment, and Azarenka had the bad luck of facing her in the first round of the tournament. The Belarusian will likely lose in straight sets and will aim to play another tournament.

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