Dubai: The top five seeds booked their spots in the quarter-finals, although in contrasting fashion on the third day of the 18th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge being held at the Habtoor Grand Beach Resort and Spa on Wednesday.
Top seed Alexandra Dulgheru, a winner in three sets on Tuesday night, eased through to a comparatively easy 6-2, 6-2 win over Valentyna Ivakhnenko of Russia after second seed Klara Koukalova from the Czech Republic had gone past Natalia Vikhlyantseva of Russia earlier in the day.
Dulgheru, the top seed and defending champion will now play sixth seed Cagla Buyukakcay, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Amra Sadikovic in the last match on Wednesday.
Third seed Alexandra Panova, who was at ease in her first round match, was stretched to the limit for a hard-fought 6-1, 6-7 (1), 7-5 win against a gutsy qualifier, Nicoleta-Catalina Dascalu from Romania.
After winning the opening set, the lanky Koukalova stumbled in the second as she allowed her opponent from Romania to get back into the match. “That was unavoidable and should not have happened in the first place. But I allowed her [Dascalu] to come back. From now on I want to be more focused on such slips,” Panova told Gulf News.
After losing the second set on tie-breaker, Panova was serving for the match at 5-2. But the Romanian just came back so strong that she managed to draw level 5-5 with a couple of breaks. But then all her hard work was undone on a faltering first serve and then a double fault and a forehand return into the net saw Dascalu fall at the very last hurdle.
“I am glad I could finish this one and get some rest before I start preparing for my quarter-final. It’s all a learning process and I don’t want to commit the same mistakes again,” the third seed vowed.
Fourth seed Kristina Kucova was also an easy winner with a 6-3, 6-2 result against Laura Pous-Tio, while fifth seed Elise Mertens of Belgium powered her way past Katerina Vankova 6-3, 6-0 to set a meeting with second seed Koukalova in today’s quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, the two doubles semi-finalists from the upper half of the draw were determined with top-seeded Elise Mertens and Ipek Soylu defeating Polina Leykina and Natalia Vikhlyantseva 6-3, 6-3 to set a semi-final meeting with third seeds Marina Melnikova and Laura Pous-Tio — also easy 6-2, 6-4 winners against wild cards Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar and Ani Vangelova.
