Stearns advances past Jabeur; Andreeva cruises in Dubai first round

Peyton Stearns and Mirra Andreeva emerged as the night-session victors at the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Monday.

Dubai: Draws | Scores | Order of play 

Stearns of the United States moved into the second round with a 7-6(6), 6-4 win over Tunisia's Ons Jabeur on Center Court.

In the first meeting between the two, Stearns came back from a late break down to grab the first set in a tiebreak, then held off a second-set battle by Jabeur, who struggled with medical time-outs as the match progressed.

Into the Dubai second round for the second straight year, World No. 46 Stearns will return to Center Court tomorrow night to face No. 7 seed and reigning Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen for the first time.

Stearns, the 2022 NCAA singles champion from the University of Texas, will be going for her first Top 10 win on Tuesday. Stearns is 0-10 against the Top 10 so far, but she came very close to ousting No. 8 Emma Navarro at this year's Australian Open.

In Monday's match, Jabeur was the early leader and she served for the first set at 5-4. But the Tunisian was never able to get to set point in that lengthy game, and Stearns converted her fourth break point after a Jabeur forehand miscue.

The opening set moved into the tiebreak, where Stearns grabbed her first set points at 6-5 (after a Jabeur double fault) and 7-6. Stearns took her second chance with a forehand return winner, closing out the one-set lead after 63 minutes.

Former World No. 2 Jabeur had the physio work on her left leg multiple times at the start of the second set, and she fell behind an early break at 2-1.

The Tunisian, though, played out the match and nearly got back on serve. Jabeur, the top-ranked Arab player in tennis history, fought through an eight-deuce game and had two break points before Stearns could grit out a critical hold for 5-3.

Stearns had to save one more break point at 5-4, but the American held firm and used one last powerful forehand to seal match point. Stearns won nearly 70 percent of her first-serve points en route to the tight straight-sets victory.

"It was pretty tough today, I wasn't 100 percent," Jabeur said afterwards. "But yeah, been there, trying my best. I just didn't want to just retire. I [wanted] to try more and see how it goes."

Following that match on Center Court, No. 12 seed Andreeva had a quicker path into the second round. The 17-year-old breezed past Elina Avanesyan 6-2, 6-1 in just 61 minutes.

Andreeva, the only teenager currently inside the Top 100 of the PIF WTA Rankings, won 70 percent of Avanesyan's second-service points in the match, leading to a 6-for-7 break point conversion rate.

Currently ranked No. 44, Avanesyan is just three spots shy of her career-high ranking. But Andreeva has a handle on their head-to-head, never losing to Avanesyan in their three career meetings.

Andreeva will now meet 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the second round. Andreeva won their only previous meeting, on the clay courts of Madrid last year.