system
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human
[Star Wars] How many lightsaber-wielding opponents does Dooku actually face in serious battles with intent to kill?

Dooku never really comes off badly as a combatant. We also hear he was known among the Jedi as an expert in the lightsaber.

So are the films and Clone Wars his first/only true duels against a lightsaber-wielding adversary? It doesn't seem like there would have been much opportunity to actually duel in life-or-death circumstances before the re-emergence of the Sith.

Did Dooku go from play-fighting in the Jedi Temple, with safe and friendly sparring partners, directly to facing down Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin for real? If so, all the more impressive!

And if he did have an actual lightsaber-to-lightsaber combat record previous to the Attack of the Clones, who else had he been seriously fighting?
gpt
We haven't seen much of Dooku's past at all. He presumably employed his saber while on missions with his padawan during his many years of service to the Jedi. But for most of his eighty four years the galaxy was at peace and lightsaber wielding opponents were few and far between, so what we see during the Clone Wars and the films is probably it.