Dubai: Fourth-seeded wild card Jelena Ostapenko was the first big seed to fall even as the top seeds continued their march into the quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open on Wednesday.
A French Open champion last year, Ostapenko went down to Russia’s Elena Vesnina 1-6, 6-7 while third seed and former runner-up Karolina Pliskova was joined by fifth and sixth seeds Caroline Garcia and Angelique Kerber and a wild card entrant into the quarter-finals of the women’s quarter-finals.
Third seed Pliskova, a runner-up to Simona Halep in 2015, rallied to emerge a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 winner over Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro in a little more than two hours while Vesnina stopped a resurgent defending French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 7-6 to make the last eight stages.
In action of the side courts, Kerber took her time before registering a 6-4, 6-2 win over Italian Sara Errani, who had made way through three days of qualifiers, while fifth seed Caroline Garcia powered her way to a 6-4, 6-2 win over Ekaterina Makarova. The story of the day was wild card Naomi Osaka’s winning run as the Japanese got the better of a higher-ranked Anett Kontaveit 6-2, 7-6 to set a meeting against either top seed and defending champion Elina Svitolina or lucky loser from China, Qiang Wang.
Handed a wild card by tournament owners and organisers Dubai Duty Free, Ostapenko — who shocked the tennis world while winning the French Open last year — fell in straight sets as the Russian improved her career record to 2-0.
A runner-up in 2015, and the lone Czech remaining in the main draw, Pliskova looked the more hesitant on court in the early stages and Suarez Navarro latched in on this to break in the 12th game and take the opening set 7-5 in 41 minutes.
In the second, Pliskova broke in first game and then served out a love game for a 2-0 lead. The third seed registered a second break in the fifth to finally serve off the set 6-2 in 29 minutes to force a deciding third set.
Suarez Navarro broke in second and held for a 2-0 lead only to see Pliskova hang in, break back and draw level for 2-2. After both had exchanged breaks, the lanky Czech managed and break and held to nudge clear 5-3 to finally win in a little over two hours on centre court to set a quarter-final meeting against Kerber.
Pliskova, who was runner-up to Simona Halep in 2015, was pleased she had got past the first hurdle here despite showing signs of being rusty. “I somehow knew it would go into three sets before the match. At times it is tough to maintain the same standard, so to dig in deep and get a result amount to an important win for the season. These are the wins that count as it’s easy to win when you’re playing your best tennis,” she observed.
“I don’t know how I’m going to do in this tournament, but maybe throughout the next part of the season wins like these can be handy and quite helpful for me,” she added.
Results:
Centre Court
Karolina Pliskova bt Carla Suarez Navarro 5-7, 6-2, 6-4; Naomi Osaka bt Anett Kontaveit 6-2, 7-6; Angelique Kerber bt Sara Errani 6-4, 6-2; Elena Vesnina bt Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 7-6; Caroline Garcia bt Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 6-2.
