Former winners Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep battled through brisk desert winds to advance into the quarter-finals of the Dubai Championships on Wednesday. Second seed Kvitova outlasted American qualifier Jennifer Brady 7-5, 1-6, 6-3. Crowd favourite and third seed Halep coped with the gusty conditions the Aviation Club as she beat Lesia Tsurenko 6-3, 7-5, breaking seven times.
The 2015 finalist won a monster game late in the second set, holding for 5-5 after seven deuces plus two set points for her American opponent.Pliskova broke a game later but dropped serve herself to force a tie-breaker; the decider ended on a first match point after Riske double-faulted.
Fifth seed Angelique Kerber, a semi-finalist on her last two appearances here, lost to Hsieh Su-Wei 5-7, 6-4, 6-0.The German former world number one dropped serve seven times in the one-and-three-quarter hour contest.
Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro made quick work of Kristina Mladenovic, surprise conqueror of Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka, sending the Dubai-based Frenchwoman out 7-5, 7-5.
“But, well, point by point, game by game, I just tried to fight, tried to relax a little bit. Meanwhile, Kvitova, who won the Dubai trophy in 2013, had not played on the WTA Tour since reaching the St Petersburg quarter-finals a fortnight ago. “When I came here, I didn’t really have many days of practice, to be honest,” the two-time Wimbledon winner said.
“I had something different to do in my life. I wasn’t really that prepared for this tournament. “But I’m happy I was able to get two wins. It’s great when you’re not playing your best and you still find a way to win.”
