defending champion belinda bencic is out of the dubai tennis championships after losing to anastasiaa row at the start of the match — eventually taking it 6—1. but the russian responded brilliantly to win the following two sets by the same score in what was her first match back since reaching the quarter—finals of the australian open last month. the third seed elina svitolina is out after being beaten by american qualifier jennifer brady in just an hour. brady, who beat world number one ashleigh barty in brisbane last month, defeated the two—time champion with ease 6—2 6—1. and unseeded elena rybakina fought back from one set down to beat the fifth—seeded sofia kenin, 6—7, 6—3, 6—3, and reach the last 16. you can get all the latest sports news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport. but from me, chetan pathak, and the rest of the sport today hello there. the weather doesn't look like it's going to be settling down anytime soon, unfortunately. we have more rainfall in the forecast, which could exacerbate already existing flooding problems. we still have several severe flood warnings in

kuznetsova beat the number 4 seed, belinda bencic in straight sets. who's ranked 37 in the world. sabalenka won 3—6, 7—6, 6—3 to reach the last four. you can get all the latest sports news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport. but from me, katie shanahan, and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. hello once again. just as i was beginning to think about climatological spring at the end of the week, so thursday brought a taste of winter to some areas, and yet much of the rest of february is going to be all about some really quite heavy rain, some very strong winds. details, of course, on all of the warnings associated with this weather are to be found on the bbc weather website. friday itself starts off dry enough across eastern spots. it's a complete contrast, though, to fortunes towards the west. because here, having had a fairly cool start to the night, so with the cloud pushing in, relatively speaking, i think it will hold up the temperatures. five or six degrees to start off your day. but you've got the cloud and the wind and the rain right f