Donna Vekic improved her strong record against Aryna Sabalenka in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, coming from a set and a break down to defeat the No.2 seed 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-0 in 2 hours and 22 minutes.

No.3 seed Elena Rybakina avoided the upset, however. A champion two weeks ago in Abu Dhabi and the runner-up in Doha last week, Rybakina dropped the first set to Victoria Azarenka. But the two-time Dubai champion was in increasingly visible discomfort as the match progressed, and Rybakina advanced 4-6, 6-2 retired after Azarenka was forced to pull the plug.

Vekic's win is her sixth in eight encounters with Sabalenka dating back to 2016, including victories at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 and the 2022  San Diego quarterfinals. It was the eighth Top 5 win of the Croat's career, and first since she upset Elena Rybakina in the 2023 Berlin second round; her only previous defeat of a player ranked No.2 or higher was over Petra Kvitova in the 2019 St. Petersburg quarterfinals.

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Sabalenka was making her first appearance since successfully defending her Australian Open crown last month, and after coming through a tight first set held a point for a double-break lead in the second set. However, the rest of the match saw her outhit by an increasingly dominant Vekic, who landed 14 aces and rattled through 12 of the last 13 games of the match.

Vekic will next face Sorana Cirstea, who defeated No.13 seed Veronika Kudermetova 6-1, 6-4. Vekic, who has reached two Grand Slam quarterfinals in her career to date, will be bidding to reach the last eight of a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time.

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Also in the bottom half of the draw, Wimbledon champion and No.7 seed Marketa Vondrousova came through 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 over Peyton Stearns -- her third win over the American in the past eight months. Vondrousova, who conjured up several delightful points as she wove her web of spins, will next face Liudmila Samsonova. The No.12 seed advanced via walkover after Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova withdrew due to illness.

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Elsewhere, Jasmine Paolini came from a break down in both sets to post her first win in four meetings against Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 6-4; the Italian will next face No.8 seed Maria Sakkari, who eased past Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-4. Polish qualifier Magdalena Frech also moved into the last 16, defeating Petra Martic 6-4, 1-6, 6-2; she will next face Rybakina.

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Turning point of Vekic's win: The opening set had seen momentum shift back and forth between the pair. Vekic broke first for 2-1, but Sabalenka immediately levelled for 2-2 and leapt out to a 5-3 lead. Vekic hit her stride to force a tiebreak, saving triple set point against her serving at 5-6. But a succession of blistering forehands enabled Sabalenka to take it and immediately break at the start of the second set.

Trailing 2-0, Vekic was under the cosh as she faced a point to go down 3-0. It was a lung-buster that saw her stretched on defense from one side of the court to the other. Vekic finally threw up a desperate backhand that Sabalenka left -- only to watch as it dropped in.

The World No.2 was able to laugh off her misjudgment, but it turned out to be the start of an emphatic reversal. From that moment on, Vekic was near-untouchable. The former No.19 had played a solid first set, tallying 16 winners to 11 unforced errors. But she was almost flawless in the second and third, finding 26 winners to just nine unforced errors.

As Vekic's level rose, Sabalenka's fell. Following a succession of clean Vekic return winners, the wheels came off the Sabalenka serve: she double faulted to go down 3-0 in the decider, then twice more to go down 5-0.

Vekic on her record against Sabalenka and the key match moments: "I know that I have a winning head-to-head. But she beat me in Australia last year in the quarterfinals. That one hurt quite a bit. 

"It was quite tough to serve out there today. It was very windy. I think we were both breaking each other's serves a lot. She played amazingly well in the tiebreak. Had a great start of the second set. I think I got a bit lucky with that slice passing shot. 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. 

"Even second set I was just trying to go for it a bit more because she was definitely out-powering me in the important points in the first set. I was like, OK, if you want to have a chance of winning, you have to go for it more. I started also serving a bit better. I think her forehand broke down a couple of times. 

"In tennis, I swear it's not over until it's over. Like I said, matches can turn around with one point. To be honest, I wasn't really thinking... These big leads don't mean nothing anymore. You just focus and play each game as if it's the last."

In Sabalenka's words: "I feel like the conditions here doesn't fit me well at all. 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 break. I didn't feel like I was up. The level was so bad today from me. I would say that she also didn't play her best. Like at the end she kind of step in and start playing way aggressively, way more aggressive 'cause she saw that I'm not playing my best at all. I think that's why she came back from that score that easy because, like, it was just like who's more lucky, you know? The level wasn't there at all. 

"She won a lot of matches against me. But all of the matches were close. I wouldn't say that she's really super tricky opponent for me. She's tough to play. She's a great fighter. She's a great player. Serving well. Playing well. It's not like because she's really tricky to play against."