Svitolina, Bencic crash out of Dubai Tennis Championships

Defending champion Belinda Bencic and two-time winner Elina Svitolina have crashed out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in the opening round.

Fourth seed Bencic lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 1-6, 1-6, while third seed Svitolina suffered a shock 2-6, 1-6 defeat to qualifier Jennifer Brady.

.@jennifurbrady95 moves on at #DDFTennis 💪

She claims it over Svitolina, 6-2, 6-1. pic.twitter.com/UwMHTkVO2p

— wta (@WTA) February 18, 2020

And she's through to the next round @NastiaPav defeats depending champion Bencic. This is going to be an interesting week #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/RhSgqMlMv5

— Dubai Tennis Champs (@DDFTennis) February 18, 2020

Elsewhere, Kristina Mladenovic overcame Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4, 6-3 and Katerina Siniakova beat fellow Czech, Karolina Muchova 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.