Top seed Simona Halep needed five match points before finally defeating sixth seed Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 in the quarter-finals at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Thursday.
“I was a little bit nervous to finish,” said Halep, who served for the match at 5-3 in the third set. “Sometimes you feel like that. So you have to stay very focused and to fight for every point.”
Halep’s victory at Dubai Tennis Stadium set up a semi-final against third seed Caroline Wozniacki, a former Dubai champion in 2011.
Photo: Reuters
Wozniacki, who has been nursing a cold all week, beat 10th seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy 7-5, 6-0, winning the last eight games.
“With the way I’ve been feeling this week, I was trying to save as much energy as I can,” the Dane said.
“I’m definitely very pleased with the way I’ve fought and still managed to win,” she said.
For the second consecutive week, Karolina Pliskova advanced to the semi-finals of a tournament by beating Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.
Pliskova recovered from a set and a service break down to win 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.
The 18-year-old Pliskova, seeded 17th, defeated Safarova in straight sets last week in Antwerp, Belgium. She next faces unseeded Garbine Muguruza.
World No. 24 Muguruza beat 13th seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-3 in an all-Spanish match.
Suarez Navarro, who withdrew from the final in Antwerp with a neck injury, was the player who defeated Pliskova in last week’s semi-finals.
“I had three set points in the first set, so I was sad,” Muguruza said. “I said if I want to win this match I cannot play bad. I knew I would have options to win the match if I won the second set.”
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