Dubai: Two former champions were among those advancing to the quarter-finals on the third day of the 17th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge at the Habtoor Grand Beach Resort and Spa on Wednesday.
Veteran Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm fought her way to a 6-1, 6-4 win against Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain, while seventh seed and 2010 champion Vitalia Diatchenko had opened the day with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Germany’s Dinah Pfizenmaier.
Big-hitting Alexandra Panova – who had felled top seed and defending champion Jana Cepelova on Tuesday night — packed off lucky loser Viktoriya Tomova 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (3) in a match that could have gone either way. The 151-ranked Russian will now meet Nadiia Kichenok, a 7-6 (2), 7-5 winner over fifth seed Carina Witthoeft of Germany.
The second round match between Dominguez and Date-Krumm did not rise as per expectations with the Spaniard not showing too much court movement following a recent knee injury. After holding serve in the first game, Dominguez just watched her Japanese opponent reel off the next six games with breaks in the third and fifth games to take the opening set 6-1.
Date-Krumm began the second set on a wrong note as Dominguez broke in the first and third games to trail her Spanish opponent 0-3. The 44-year-old veteran made up by breaking back in the fourth and sixth games with a held serve in-between to draw level 3-3.
From then on, it was the pint-sized Japanese star as she broke one more time in the eighth game and then saw her Spanish opponent save seven match-points to break back for 4-5. However, she kept her poise and broke back to take set and match 6-4 and set a meeting with Romanian girl Andreea Mitu.
“Being down 0-3 was not easy for me. I realised that she [Dominguez] was getting better in the second by mixing up her game with top-spin and slice. I had to do something different and come up with a solution,” Date-Krumm told media later.
“I lost my rhythm to an extent but I think it was my experience coming in handy in the end,” she added.
Asked about her chances against a much younger opponent from Romania in Thursday’s quarter-finals, Date-Krumm said: “I think I just need to focus. I know it won’t be easy, but I will be aggressive and patient at the same time and once again try to use my experience.”
