Halep cruises into quarters
DUBAI (AFP) – Former winners Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep advanced to the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championships on Wednesday and were joined by two-time defending champion Elina Svitolina.
Second seed Kvitova outlasted American qualifier Jennifer Brady, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.
Crowd favorite and third seed Halep coped with gusty conditions at the Aviation Club as she beat Lesia Tsurenko, 6-3, 7-5, breaking seven times.
The Romanian will play her quarter-final against a charged-up Belinda Bencic, who saved seven match points before converting the first of her own to beat Aryna Sabalenka, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (9/7).
“I have no idea how I won, I was thinking many times during the match points that I was already back in the locker room,” said Bencic.
“I have nothing to lose against Halep, she’s a great player. But I have gained energy from this win.”
Tsurenko managed just a single point over the last three games as former world number one Halep demonstrated her superiority by taking a 7-0 lead in their head-to-head record.
Svitolina put on the most dominant performance, crushing former Wimbledon and Roland Garros champion Garbine Muguruza, 6-1, 6-2, in just 62 minutes.
She is bidding to become the first woman to win the tournament three times and next faces Carla Suarez Navarro.
The Spaniard edged past Kristina Mladenovic, surprise conqueror of world number one Naomi Osaka, sending the Dubai-based Frenchwoman out, 7-5, 7-5.
Suarez Navarro started on the back foot but rallied to overcome a 5-1 deficit in the first set on the way to victory.
But she was not impressed with her own effort.
“I didn’t play good today. I started badly,’’ the world number 26 said. “Sometimes is not easy take the confidence back again.’’
Fourth-seeded Karolina Pliskova was tested by Alison Riske, with the Czech taking more than two hours to produce a 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5) victory.
Angelique Kerber, a semi-finalist on her last two appearances here, lost to Hsieh Su-Wei 5-7, 6-4, 6-0.
Meanwhile, Kvitova, who won the Dubai trophy in 2013, had not played on the WTA Tour since reaching the St Petersburg quarterfinals a fortnight ago.