Mubadala World Tennis Championship 2022 Day 1: Emma Raducanu loses thriller, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev advance to semifinals
Day 1 of this year's Mubadala World Tennis Championship saw the likes of Emma Raducanu, Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas in action at the International Tennis Center in Abu Dhabi.
Emma Raducanu was up against Ons Jabeur and put up a valiant fight before losing in three sets. Tsitsipas, meanwhile, qualified for the semifinals of the exhibition tournament with a straight-sets win over Cameron Norrie, while defending champion Andrey Rublev also booked his place in the last four by beating Borna Coric in another straight-set encounter.
Let's take a look at how the matches on Day 1 of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship unfolded:
Resilient Emma Raducanu comes up short against Ons Jabeur
Emma Raducanu narrowly lost to Ons Jabeur in an hour and 42 minutes in the one-off women's match at the Mubadala World Tennis Championships. The Tunisian started the match strongly by taking a 3-1 lead in the first set.
However, Raducanu fought back hard and broke her opponent a few times to take the set 7-5. Jabeur then made the decisive break in the sixth game of the second set to win 6-3 and force the match into a tiebreaker.
It was a tight battle and Raducanu was serving at 8-7. Jabeur, however, won three successive points to win the clash 5-7, 6-3, 10-8, registering her second title in a row at the event.
Stefanos Tsitsipas makes easy work of Cameron Norrie
Stefanos Tsitsipas produced a dominant display against Cameron Norrie to seal his place in the semifinals of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
The Greek made an early break in the opening set and broke the Brit again to win it 6-1. The second set was tightly-contested as both players were strong on their serve. However, Tsitsipas made the decisive break in the ninth game before holding his serve to win the match 6-1, 6-4 and qualify for the semifinals.
Here, he will be up against Casper Ruud for a place in the final. Norrie, on the other hand, will face Borna Coric in the 5th place playoff.
Andrey Rublev starts title defense with a win over Borna Coric
Defending champion Andrey Rublev had a winning start to his title defense at the Mubadala World Tennis Championships as he beat Cincinnati champion Borna Coric in straight sets.
The first set was a closely-contested one with neither player being able to break the other's serve. A tiebreak would go on to decide the fate of the opening set, which Rublev won 7-4 to take the lead in the match.
The second set was also pretty close, as both players were strong on their serve until the ninth game, when Rublev broke Coric to lead 5-4. The Russian then held his serve to win the match 7-6(4), 6-4 and book his place in the semifinals.
Here, he will be up against World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz while Borna Coric will face Cameron Norrie in the 5th place playoff.