Dubai: The top four seeds sailed through effortlessly while three others fell by the wayside during the penultimate day of qualifying at the 17th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge being played at the Habtoor Grand Beach Resort and Spa on Sunday.
Top seed Amandine Hesse made her way past Claudia Coppola of Italy 6-4, 6-1, while second seed and fellow French girl Irina Ramialison powered past Julia Stamatova from Bulgaria 6-1, 6-2 in under one hour.
Third seed Viktoriya Tomova also had an easy outing with a 6-4, 7-5 win over American Nicole Melichar, while fourth seed Katerina Kramperova of the Czech Republic dispatched Sanjana Sudhir. The Indian girl had earned an entry into the second round thanks to a walkover by American wild card Hana Evans on Saturday.
The next three seeds did not make it past the second round of qualifying with fifth seed Ana Veselinovic falling in three sets 6-7 (4), 6-3, 2-6 against Ekaterina Yashina from Russia, while sixth seed Diana Buzean of Romania went down 6-7 (2), 1-6 against Jesika Maleckova.
Nicoleta-Catalina Dascalu of Romania fought her way past seventh seed Chantal Skamlova from Slovakia 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Fatma Al Nabhani of Oman had fallen on the opening day itself against Elena Bogdan.
Dascalu, who has set up a meeting with top seed Hesse in Monday’s last day of qualifying, was hopeful of crossing the final hurdle. “I am much more relaxed whenever I play an unknown opponent. This is my first $75,000 tournament and I have nothing to lose. So I will just go out there and give it my best,” Dascalu told Gulf News.
The final round of qualifying will continue on Monday morning, while the opening day of the main draw will see a lot of engrossing encounters later in the day.
Top seed and defending champion Jana Cepelova has been drawn up against Russian Alexandra Panova, while second seed Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium – who is holding up the lower end of the draw - will be up against one of the four qualifiers in her first round on Tuesday.
Third seed Tereza Smitkova of the Czech Republic will have to match Belgian An-Sophie Mestach and fourth seed Anna-Lena Friedsam will also have to face a qualifier.
