Dubai: India’s Sania Mirza and French girl Caroline Garcia fell to fifth seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Saisai Zheng 4-6, 2-6 as the doubles quarter-finals were finalised late on Wednesday.
Handed with a wild card by tournament owners and organisers Dubai Duty Free, Mirza and Garcia struggled for consistency before falling in straight sets to the new pair of Krejcikova and Zheng in 62 minutes.
“Honestly, I think we played better than yesterday, but I still think that against someone that good you have to really be at your best. I still need some more matches as I feel a bit rusty,” Mirza told Gulf News.
“We had our chances in the first set, but we didn’t take these chances. They played a really clean and solid match as well and we have to commend that,” she added.
The Indo-French pair didn’t have the best of starts as Mirza was broken in the third game as Krejcikova and Zheng took the first set 6-4. In the second they got even better with a couple of breaks settling their spot in the last four stage of the competition.
“They are a new team and I have not really watched them in the past two-and-a-half years that I have stopped playing. Their first serve percentage was really, really high and they were not missing a first serve. You have to give them credit. They didn’t give us the chances to get in,” Mirza admitted.
RESULTS
Doubles
Desirae Krawczyk/Alison Riske bt Hao-Ching Chan/Latisha Chan 3-6, 6-3, 10-7; Nicole Melichar/Yifan Xu bt Makoto Ninomiya/Zhaoxuan Yang 1-6, 7-5, 10-7; Hayley Carter (USA)/Luisa Stefani bt Karolina Pliskova/Kristyna Pliskova 6-4, 6-4; Barbora Krejcikova/Saisai Zheng bt Caroline Garcia/Sania Mirza 6-4, 6-2; Su-Wei Hsieh/Barbora Strycova bt Xinyun Han/Shuai Peng 6-2, 6-2; Lyudmyla Kichenok/Nadiia Kichenok vs Yingying Duan/Veronika Kudermetova 6-7, 7-5, 10-7; Sofia Kenin (USA)/Bethanie Mattek-Sands vs Kveta Peschke/Demi Schuurs 0-6, 6-0, 10-1. Gabriela Dabrowski/Shuai Zhang bt Karolina Muchova/Marketa Vondrousova (walkover).
