Dubai: Nadia Petrova overcame severe cramping before teaming up with Dubai-based Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik to defeat the German pair of Julia Goerges and Angelique Kerber 6-7, 7-6, 10-5 and enter the doubles semi-finals at the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open late on Thursday.
Petrova had called for a medical time-out in the third set during the quarter-final earlier in the evening against her Italian teammate Sara Errani. But a couple of hours later, she was back on court with Srebotnik to work out a close win against the Germans.
The second-seeded pair of Petrova and Srebotnik will now meet the fourth seeded duo of Nuria Llagostera Vives and Jie Zheng in the second semi-finals to be later on Friday.
In the first semi-final on Friday, Sania Mirza will team up with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and face Cara Black and Anastasia Rodionova at 2 pm on centre court.
RESULTS
(Doubles)
Nuria Llagostera Vives/Jie Zheng bt Darija Jurak/Katalin Marosi 6-3, 6-4; Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Sania Mirza bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/Lucie Safarova 6-4, 6-4; Cara Black/Anastasia Rodionova bt Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur 6-1, 6-3; Nadia Petrova/Katarina Srebotnik bt Julia Goerges/Angelique Kerber 6-7, 7-6, 10-5.
