Clara Tauson is ready for the quarter-final in the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi, where she is seeded third.
On Tuesday, the 23-year-old Dane played her first match in the tournament and, despite a slow start, won very confidently over the 25-year-old Swiss Simona Waltert.
She won 6-3, 6-1 after just under 70 minutes of play in Tauson's first match since losing to Victoria Mboko in the Australian Open.
In the next round, she is set to face the 26-year-old American McCartney Kessler, who is ranked 32nd in the world and won the only match so far between the two players in 2023.
On Tuesday, Tauson initially found it difficult to settle into her normal rhythm and lost her own first two service games.
Fortunately for the Dane, Waltert was even worse. The Swiss's first serve was often without speed and power and posed no major challenge for the strong and aggressive Dane.
Waltert searched ahead 2-1, but from then on, Tauson regained her composure and at the same time kept the level in the opponent's service games.
It resulted in a very one-sided affair, and 6-3 for Tauson in the first set.
Tauson's game wasn't exactly flawless, but overall, the game was good enough to outmaneuver and grind Waltert convincingly in the second set.