Elina Svitolina keeps alive Dubai Championships title hopes

Top seed Elina Svitolina survived a tricky tussle with lucky loser Wang Qiang to keep alive her hopes of back-to-back titles at the Dubai Championships.

The Ukrainian, who defeated Caroline Wozniacki in the final last year, lost the second set to China’s Wang but recovered to win 6-1 5-7 6-2 and set up a quarter-final clash with Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who defeated Anett Kontaveit 6-2 7-6 (7/5).

Second seed Garbine Muguruza did not take to the court until after midnight for her match against American teenager Cici Bellis and finished off a 6-3 7-5 victory just before 2am.

The preceding match between seventh seed Johanna Konta and Daria Kasatkina lasted one minute short of three hours, with the young Russian saving two match points on the way to a 4-6 7-6 (8/6) 6-2 victory.

Fourth seed Jelena Ostapenko also fell, losing to Elena Vesnina, but there were wins for Karolina Pliskova and Angelique Kerber, who will play each other in the last eight, and fifth seed Caroline Garcia.

Defending champion Timea Babos was in a ruthless mood at the Hungarian Ladies Open.

The third seed and local favourite defeated Tatjana Maria 6-1 6-0 in less than an hour in her opening match to set up a second-round clash with Mona Barthel.

Top seed Dominika Cibulkova and second seed Zhang Shuai were also comfortable winners but Alison van Uytvanck defeated fifth seed Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-1 6-0 and Petra Martic was a 3-6 6-4 6-4 victor against sixth seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich.