Dubai Duty Free Championships: Impressive win of Keys over Azarenka, she books spot in quarter-finals

American Madison Keys moved into the last eight of the Dubai Duty Free Championships by winning against Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, the No 15 seed, 6-2, 6-1 at The Aviation Club Tennis Centre on Wednesday.

Keys, ranked No 23, will face the winner of the match between Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the No 9 seed, and American Coco Gauff, the No 5 seed, next.

The American defeated Italian qualifier Jasmine Paolini (6-1, 6-1) and Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, the No 4 seed (7-5, 6-4) earlier in the tournament.

In the previous rounds of the Dubai Open, Azarenka, ranked No 14, won against Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6-3, 7-5) and edged out American Amanda Anisimova (4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5)).

Dubai WTA 1000, other last 16 results (The Aviation Club Tennis Centre, hard, USD 2.788.468, most recent results first):

• Barbora Krejcikova vs. Petra Kvitova
• Jelena Ostapenko vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Elena Rybakina vs. Coco Gauff
• Iga Swiatek vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Belinda Bencic vs. Karolina Muchova
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Ana Bogdan (Q): 6-4, 6-3
• Karolina Pliskova beat Anhelina Kalinina: 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-2