Doha champion Iga Swiatek got off to a winning start at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-4 second-round win over American Sloane Stephens. 

After Swiatek recorded four wins to capture the Qatar TotalEnergies Open title last week, the World No.1 needed nearly 2 hours to extend her unbeaten run in the Middle East this year to five in her return to Dubai after a runner-up finish to Barbora Krejcikova in 2023. The World No.1 is bidding for her eighth career WTA 1000 title this week in Dubai, and has now won 23 of her last 24 matches dating back to last summer's US Open -- with her only loss coming in January in the third round of the Australian Open to Czech teenager Linda Noskova.

Match management: With the win, Swiatek improved to 3-0 in her career against 2017 US Open champion Stephens, and has never lost a set in those matches. She came close in Tuesday's affair, though, as she was down a break three times in the first set -- at 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3. But she won three straight games (and 12 of the last 14 points) to avoid dropping a set to Stephens for the first time. 

The second set was the inverse of the first in that both women held serve across the first nine games -- and combined to save all 13 break points they faced -- before Swiatek broke Stephens' serve for a fifth and final time to wrap up the win in 1 hour and 57 minutes.

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Swiatek speaks: "For sure it wasn't easy. We had a lot of tight games," she told reporters after the match. "I really needed to perform a little bit better in those important moments because I couldn't convert some break points. But I'm happy that at the end I did.

"I just need to go a level up, but just a little bit. There weren't, like, many important changes I could do to make my game better because I knew I just needed to play better just a little bit and it's all going to be fine."

Up next: Swiatek will next face two-time former Dubai champion and No.15 seed Elina Svitolina for a spot in the quarterfinals. The pair have split two prior meetings, with Svitolina winning their last match in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last summer. 

"I just have to be ready and take a lesson from Wimbledon and try to play my game," Swiatek said.

The winner of that match will face the winner of the third-round affair between No.5 seed Zheng Qinwen, the Australian Open finalist, and Anastasia Potapova. Zheng rallied from a set down to defeat Japanese qualifier Nao Hibino 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday, while Potapova rolled to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Italian lucky loser Lucia Bronzetti.