Dubai tennis: Here's what's in store for Thursday

Kontaveit completes quarter-final line-up at Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open

Last updated:
Alaric Gomes, Chief Reporter
2 MIN READ
Romania's Simona Halep receives medical attention as she faces with Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.
Romania's Simona Halep receives medical attention as she faces with Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.
AFP

Dubai: Thursdaythrows up several engrossing matches after Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit completed the singles quarter-final line-up with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over big-serving Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open, late on Wednesday.

With two earlier matches going to three sets, it was Australian Open quarter-finalist Kontaveit matching her better-built opponent to send the first set into a tie-breaker that the Estonian went on to win 7-5. In the second, Pavlyuchenkova went clear in the eighth, but Kontaveit hit right back with a couple of successive breaks to serve out for set and match to set up a first Dubai quarter-final against eighth seed Petra Martic of Croatia.

Earlier, top seed and former world number one Simona Halep dug herself out for a well-contested 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 win over the Arab region’s best player Ons Jabeur of Tunisia. The top seed will now meet seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka in today’s quarter-final.

American Jennifer Brady became the only surviving qualifier with a three-set 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over 2019 French Open quarter-finalist Marketa Vondrousova to set up an engrossing battle against 2020 Australian Open runner-up and two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza.

In the lower half of the draw, second seed Karolina Pliskova was in a hurry sealing off a hasty 6-1, 6-2 win against qualifier Kristina Mladenovic to set up a meeting with exciting Kazakh youngster Elena Rybakina – a 6-3, 6-3 winner over qualifier Katerina Siniakova.

Order of play for Thursday

Singles Quarter-Finals: Centre Court (2 pm) Elena Rybakina vs Karolina Pliskova; (3.30 pm) Jennifer Brady vs Garbine Muguruza. (7 pm) Petra Martic vs Anett Kontaveit; Simona Halep vs Aryna Sabalenka.

Doubles Quarter-Finals: Court No.1 (2 pm) Hayley Carter/Luisa Stefani vs Desirae Krawczyk/Alison Riske; Barbora Krejcikova/Saisai Zheng vs Nicole Melichar/Yifan Xu; Gabriela Dabrowski/Shuai Zhang vs Lyudmyla Duan/Veronika Kudermetova; Su-Wei Hsieh/Barbora Strycova vs Sofia Kenin/Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

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