DUBAI, UAE - No.11 seed Daria Kasatkina was forced to battle back from a break down in the deciding set to notch up her first win of the season over qualifier Magdalena Frech 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

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The Russian had lost her first four matches of the season, with her sole victory coming in Fed Cup Group 1 zonal play over World No.669 Karen Barritza - and against an opponent making her debut in a Premier 5 main draw and playing only her second Top 20 opponent, life was rarely easy over the course of a gruelling two hours and 15 minutes for last year's runner-up. Trailing Frech 0-3 in the deciding set, Kasatkina struggled to hit through her rival's watertight defence with any consistency, finishing with a total of 61 unforced errors - but was ultimately able to rescue the match in the nick of time.

The pair had not met since their sole junior encounter in 2011, a 6-2, 6-1 victory for Kasatkina in the first round of a Grade 4 event in Poznan - and the World No.14 started off in much the same vein today, breaking Frech three times and racing to a 5-1 lead. Demonstrating proficiency and creativity from all corners of the court, Kasatkina would dominate rallies with her heavy forehand before finishing with sharp angles - as well as conjuring up moments of magic such as the sidespin-laden backhand approach with which she saved a break point in the sixth game.

But the 21-year-old Pole was showing intermittent potential, with a willingness to come forward and a neat hand on the dropshot of particular interest, and by the end of the set had settled sufficiently to extend rallies further and further.

Though it wasn't enough to save the set, Frech's fightback meant that she opened the second act in good stead; a remarkable backhand angle paved the way to an immediate break as Kasatkina lapsed into carelessness. A poor dropshot to fall behind a double break added to the Moscow champion's woes - as did the turnaround to breaking down first in some of the longer points, such as the 34-shot rally of the sixth game. Kasatkina would regain one of the breaks back, but the climax of the second set was a limp one as four consecutive unforced errors conceded her serve once more in the final game.

Matters did not improve at the start of the deciding set. Frech, displaying dogged defensive work reminiscent at times of Caroline Wozniacki, seemed unable to miss, particularly with a smooth crosscourt backhand that edged Kasatkina further and further out of court; by contrast, there were few shots, it seemed, that Kasatkina couldn't miss. A double fault on break point put the Roland Garros and Wimbledon quarterfinalist down 0-2; a shocking netted drive volley sank her to 0-3.

Kasatkina was never going to go down quietly, but when Frech survived a barrage of winners from the Russian to fend off two break points and take a 4-1 lead, it seemed as though she had survived the danger zone. But despite Kasatkina continuing to make errors at net with a wide open court to aim for, mistakes began to creep into Frech's game at length for the first time since the opening set. Consecutive forehands over the baseline handed the break back in the seventh game - and finally, Kasatkina alit on something approximating her best tennis.

Three backhand winners - two of them with her trademark swashbuckling jump - got Kasatkina out of danger again in the eighth game as she saved a break point to level the scoreline at 4-4; and in the home stretch it was her forehand that rose to the occasion as she completed a sweep of the final five games of the match.

Off the mark at last in 2019, the second round will pose another tough test for Kasatkina in the form of either Hobart champion Sofia Kenin or San Jose champion Mihaela Buzarnescu.