Dubai: Flavia Pennetta shouldn’t be too disappointed with her 6-3, 7-5 quarter-final defeat to Venus Williams on Thursday as, in the 13-year history of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open, the 31-year-old Italian is only the fifth qualifier to reach the latter stages of the competition.
Australia’s Rachel McQuillan reached the semi-final as a qualifier here in 2001, while Russia’s Lina Krasnoroutskaya, Elena Vesnina and Regina Kulikova all made the last eight here as qualifiers in 2002, 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Had the current world No.22 decided to enter the competition earlier, she would have made it into the main draw based on her current world ranking, but a late decision saw her forced to go through three rounds of qualification.
Last year’s US Open semi-finalist secured one of four qualification slots to the main draw after overcoming Slovakia’s Kristina Kucova 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 7-6(3), 6-0 and Germany’s Yvonne Meusburger 6-1, 6-3. She then beat Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 7-5, 6-4 in the first round proper.
Whether having to play four games before even meeting seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus was a help or a hindrance is open to debate. However, the spirit and determination demonstrated by the Italian as she progressed through the tournament will go down as one of this year’s highlights.
In three previous appearances in Dubai, Pennetta suffered two second round exits either side of a semi-final finish in 2011. She has only played in three events so far this season, but this is already the second time she has reached a quarter-final after last month’s last-eight appearance at the Australian Open. She was knocked out in the first round in Doha last week.
Fellow qualifier Annika Beck of Germany crashed out in the second round this week with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki. That was despite seeing off Australia’s Samantha Stosur 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the first round.
Maryna Zanevska of the Ukraine was knocked out in the first round by Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 6-3, as was the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova, who slipped to a 6-1, 7-5 defeat to Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens.
