Sport | Tennis
Black and Huber ease into semifinals
The top two pairings eased into the semifinals at the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open at the Dubai Tennis Stadium yesterday.
- By Alaric Gomes, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:36 May 3, 2009
Dubai: The top two pairings eased into the semifinals at the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open at the Dubai Tennis Stadium yesterday.
The top pairing of Zimbabwean Cara Black and South African Liezel Huber got past Mara Santangelo and Vladimira Uhlirova 7-5, 6-3, while the second seeded duo of Francesca Schiavone and Dubai-based Katarina Srebotnik survived anxious moments in the second set before powering past Andreea Ehritt-Vanc and Anastasia Rodionova 6-0, 7-6 (2).
Black - who reached a career high number one in the doubles two years ago - and Huber, with a best doubles ranking of No 4 (October 2005) were always in control as they took the first set 7-5.
In the second things were easier as a couple of breaks saw the disbanding of the Santangelo-Sugiyama resistance 6-3.
Black and Huber will face third seeds Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama following their 6-3, 6-1 win against Janette Husarova and Kveta Peschke.
Schiavone and Srebotnik had a change in fortunes late in their encounter against the relatively unheard pair of Ehritt-Vanc and Rodionova.
They breezed through the first set 6-0, but found their opponents matching them at each step to eventually take the tie-breaker at 7-2 and move into the last four.
Their semifinal opponents will now be Svetlana Kuznetsova and Alicia Molik after their smooth 6-4, 6-4 win against Kateryna Bondarenko and Vera Dushevina late on Wednesday.
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