Dubai: Three past champions were joined by crowd-puller Ana Ivanovic on the sidelines of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open at the Dubai Tennis Stadium in early matches on Wednesday.
Spain’s Garbine Muguruza made her Dubai debut count as she sent 2012 champion Agnieszka Radwanska packing off in straight sets 6-4, 6-2; while Lucie Safarova registered only her second career win in six meetings to bring defending champion Venus Williams’s 16-match-winning streak to an abrupt halt with a 6-4, 6-2 result.
Later in the afternoon, Karolina Pliskova made her way past fourth seed and former world number one Ivanovic with a tough 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win to book her place in the quarter-finals against Safarova while 2013 champion and second seed Petra Kvitova could not sustain the all-round game of Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro as she went down 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
Muguruza, who father is Spanish and mother is from Venezuela, has been one of the fast-improving players on the WTA Tour. Last season was a breakthrough year for her with a career high No. 21 while also winning her first WTA title at Hobert and the French Open quarter-finals, where she lost to Maria Sharapova.
Muguruza was confident she would be able to make it past the seasoned Radwanska. “The key was just being consistent
with my game,” she said.
“I think that nowadays, there are so many girls that play so good that the difference between the top players and the others is really small. So I think that you have a chance if you work and play and concentrate on your game. I think you can beat them,” she added.
Venus Williams wilted in late afternoon heat as Safarova put an end to her 16-match winning streak with an inspiring display. Venus made her Dubai debut in 2002 reaching the semi-finals while two years later she made the quarter-finals. In 2005, Venus crashed in the first round to Italian Silvia Farina Elia, after which the American won all three times — 2009, 2010 and last year — to close in on Justine Henin’s record of four titles.
Safarova was simply too focused and Williams was at a loss of words. “I think she played awesome. There were a couple of games there that I didn’t even get my racket on the ball. What can I say to that? I don’t think I played badly, but I couldn’t afford to make any errors today. The errors that I made were really costly,” Williams admitted.
It looked as though Pliskova was headed to an easy win against Ivanovic as she took the opening set 6-2, but the former world number one fought back and drew level winning the second set 6-4. The final set could have gone either way as both exchanged breaks to stay tied 4-4 till the Czech broke one more and then served out set and match in under two hours.
Petra Kvitova, 2013 champion, was the other high profile casualty as she lost in three sets to Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro.
