Injured Simona withdraws after reaching semi-finals

DOHA: Simona Halep pulled out of the Qatar Open with a right foot injury shortly after she reached the semi-final with a dominant 6-0, 6-4 win over American qualifier Catherine Bellis on Friday.

The Romanian World No 2, who was playing her first event since losing in the Australian Open final last month, said she had been carrying the injury throughout the tournament and would also miss next week’s Dubai Tennis Championships.

“Definitely until Indian Wells I will not play anything. I will decide before the tournament if I will be able to play,” Simona told a news conference.

“I am surprised I could play three matches and win them. I felt pain every day, so it wasn’t easy to manage it... the MRI shows that I have fluid and also tendinitis at the fourth toe, so I have to take care of it and think about my health first.

“I didn’t have much time to recover before this tournament, but today was too much, and I decided to stop,” added Simona, who joins Russian Maria Sharapova and American Madison Keys in pulling out of next week’s event.

Simona’s withdrawal means World No 4 Garbine Muguruza will play in today’s final in Doha after the Spaniard came back from a set down to beat Caroline Garcia 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

After struggling to find her range and rhythm in the first set, Garbine saved a break point and won five straight games in the second set to drag the contest into a decider.

She then broke Garcia early in the third set and held on to clinch the victory in nearly two hours.

World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki suffered a mid-match blip before getting past Angelique Kerber 76(4), 1-6, 6-3. She next faces the twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who advanced after opponent Julia Goerges was forced to retire trailing 6-4 2-1.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Kei Nishikori survived his toughest test since his return to the ATP Tour, having to come back from behind to beat Radu Albot 4-6, 63, 6-1 on Friday to reach the semifinal of the New York Open.

Playing in his first ATP tournament since August, Nishikori had enjoyed straight set victories in the first two rounds before dropping the first set to Albot.

But the 28-year-old regained momentum in the match by controlling his serve and breaking Albot’s service six times.

“It was a very tough start. I think he was playing very good tennis,” Nishikori was quoted as saying on the ATP Tour website.

“During the second set I started getting my rhythm back and started playing a little more inside the baseline and everything started working well... (I’m) very happy to win today.”

Nishikori played South African Kevin Anderson, who overcame American Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in a two-hour battle, in a late last-four match yesterday.

In earlier matches, second seed Sam Querrey topped Croatian Ivo Karlovic 7-6(5), 7-6(4).

He played Adrian Mannarino in the other late semi-final match.