Petra Kvitova, who is trying to work her way back into the top three after illness and injury, suffered a blow when the defense of her Dubai Open title lasted no more than one match on Wednesday.
The former world No. 2 from the Czech Republic was beaten by Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro, who spent much of the match trailing, but her refusal to give up was rewarded with a 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) win and a place in the quarter-finals.
Navarro’s consistently heavy ground strokes and superior movement prospered more as the conditions grew slower, and she recovered first from a set and 2-4 down, then from 2-4 down in the deciding tie-break.
Photo: AFP
Kvitova made one good recovery herself, coming from 2-4 in the final set to lead 5-4 before attempting to close the match out on her serve.
However, her flat-hitting game increasingly lacked consistency and gradually the proximity of defeat began to apply its own pressure.
Navarro now plays Alise Cornet, the in-form French No. 1 who followed her conquest of Simona Halep, the seventh-seeded Rumanian who won in Qatar last Sunday, by winning 6-3, 6-4 against Kirsten Flipkens.
Another seed to fall was Sara Errani, the fourth-seeded Italian, who lost early in the Middle East for the second successive week, beaten 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 by Sorana Cirstea, the world No. 27 from Romania.
Earlier on Wednesday Serbia’s former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic claimed that Venus Williams was close to her best again.
The 33-year-old American was certainly impressive in the second-round clash which saw her romp to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Ivanovic and a place in the quarter-finals.
Sister Serena’s next match promises to be a high-voltage affair as she is to face another Serbian former world No. 1 in Jelena Jankovic, who beat the useful Czech Lucie Safarova 7-5, 6-4.
The last meeting between Jankovic and Serena Williams was close and contentious.
It saw Jankovic almost prevent Williams from winning last year’s WTA Championships year-end title in Istanbul, and later appearing to question her sportsmanship.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier