Dubai Duty Free Tennis: Seeded players Garcia, Sakkari, Kasatkina crash out

Seeded players fell like nine pins during early afternoon action at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, a WTA 1000 event, being played at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Tuesday.

The biggest name to fall was fourth seed Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia who succumbed to the wiles American Madison Keys for the fourth time in her career.

The big-serving Keys, who has won her three last matches against Garcia including in the French Open last year, extended that dominance with a well-executed 7-5 6-4 victory on Centre Court.

Sixth seed Maria Sakkari and Daria Kasatkina, seeding one place behind her, also followed Garcia out of the tournament.

Sakkari looked out of sorts on the bright blue stadium’s new DecoTurf courts and succumbed 6-1 5-1 to Karolina Pliskova.

Meanwhile, Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic stunned Kasatkina, a former Dubai runner-up, 6-4 4-6 7-5.

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