Dubai: Alexandra Dulgheru, the reigning Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge (AHTC) champion, has promised her best is yet to come after battling her way past Yulia Putintseva 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in their opening qualifying round match at the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open on Friday.
The 25-year-old Dulgheru looked a bit rusty during her first outdoor match of the season after being laid low by a viral bug that denied her the qualifying rounds of the season-opening Australian Open.
The Romanian was erratic on serve and a double fault in the tenth game was enough for her 20-year-old Kazakh opponent to run away with the opening set 6-4.
But Dulgheru — a 6-3, 6-4 winner to deny Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm her second crown at the AHTC in November last year — fought back and she now wants to put the disappointing start behind her. The match lasted a little over three hours and Dulgheru is ready for the long haul.
“Of course I would have loved to finish it off in two sets. But then we all know how tough she [Putintseva] can be. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why I was patient with myself. At some point I was just hanging in there and trying to play a purely percentage game,” Dulgheru told Gulf News.
Dulgheru’s best year was 2011, when she achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 26. However, she has been prone to illness and she said the latest bout continues to affect her.
“The strong antibiotics have taken a toll on the body. So for me it means just hanging in there and just waiting for the opportunities to come along. And with this being my first outdoor match of the season, I had to simply hang in there against a very tough opponent,” she said.
Dulgheru’s next opponent will be the winner of the match between Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and American Raquel Kops-Jones.
“Both of them are hard hitters of the ball and I will have to be ready with my gameplan,” she said.
“Basically, for someone who is in a position that I am presently in, it means taking things one day at a time.”
Qualifying round matches continue at the Dubai Tennis Stadium in Al Garhoud from 10.30am on Saturday.
