Svitolina sizzles
The good, bad and the ugly — fans at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships saw it all on Wednesday.
Sixth seed Angelique Kerber was seriously good in her straight set (6-4 6-2) round of 16 win over Qualifier Sara Errani at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
Top seed and defending champion Elina Svitolina suffered a second set slump, before recovering to win her opening match 6-1 5-7 6-2 against Lucky Loser Qiang Wang of China and set up a quarterfinal date with Japanese youngster Naomi Osaka.
Osaka was impressive with a fine 6-2 7-6 victory over Estonian Anett Kontaveitt.
But third seed Karolina Pliskova felt her game wasn’t in the best shape after surviving a tough three-set battle (5-7 6- 6-4) against Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain to set up a quarterfinal battle with Kerber.
And the biggest disappointment of the day was fourth seed Jelene Ostapenko, the 20-year-old Latvian who last year become the first unseeded player to win the French Open since 1933.
Unfortunately for Dubai fans, the Ostapenko that beat Simona Halep in that unforgettable Roland Garros final never turned up on Wednesday.
Her inconsistent run since that unexpected French Open triumph has left many wondering if she could ever become a serious a contender again at the Slams.
On Wednesday, it was intriguing to see her oscillate between the good and ugly in her round of 16 defeat (1-6 6-7) to Russian doubles specialist Elena Vesnina.
Ostapenko made too many errors in the first set and the 31-year-old Vesnina was too experienced to waste those chances. But it was in the topsy-turvy second set that Dubai saw glimpses of the talent that Ostapenko posses — especially her running forehands from the baselines were majestic.
In the end though, the Russian brought all her experience in the thrilling tie-break that saw some breathtaking rallies to knock Ostapenko out of the championship. While Ostapenko would look at the highlights to know what went wrong, Kerber, the veteran German, made all the right moves in her victory over Errani — the winner of the Dubai championships in 2016.
“I think it was a tricky match, especially because she (Errani) was, of course, playing good. She had a lot of confidence after her matches in the qualifiers here already,” the former world number one said after her victory. “I was just trying, you know, to stay in the match and trying not think about how she was playing, because she was playing with a lot of spin. So I was just trying to focus more on my game.”
Kerber will take on Pliskova – a player she beaten four times in last five clashes — for a place in the semifinals.
“Against Pliskova, it’s always a tough match. I know how she’s playing. I know what to expect. I know that I have to play good tennis again. It will be completely different match than today,” the two-time Grand Slam winner said.
“We have had many great matches in the past. Yeah, I’m looking forward to playing against her again.” Meanwhile, fifth seed Caroline Garcia of France also reached the quarterfinals with a straight-set (6-4 6-2) win over Russian Ekaterina Makarova on Court One.