Dubai Tennis Championships: Sania-Hradecka pair reach doubles semis as seeds crash in singles

Dubai, February 17: Sania Mirza and Lucie Hradecka pair reached the women's doubles semifinals at the Dubai Tennis Championships after straight sets win over the pair of Alexandra Krunic and Shuko Aoyama on Wednesday (February 16).

The Indo-Czech pair of Mirza-Hradecka defeated the Japan-Serb pair of Aoyama-Krunic 7-5, 6-3 in the quartefinal clash to advance to the last four of the tournament in Dubai.

The first was closely contested and Mirza-Hradecka finally broke the pair Aoyama and Krunic in the 12th game to take the set 7-5 and go 1-0 up. The Indo-Czech pair had it easy in the second set, which they took 6-3 to seal the match in one hour and sixteen minutes.

Mirza-Hradecka will next face the winner of the quarterfinal between top seeds Ena-Shibahara-Zhang Suai and the pair of Lyudmala Kichenok-Jelena Ostapenko.

In singles competition, defending champion Garbine Muguruza, 2021 finalist Barbora Krejcikova and top seed Aryna Sabalenka were all eliminated with only eighth seed Ons Jabeur left as the top remaining player in the draw.

Some big names helped deliver the shocks, though, with world number two Sabalenka usurped by two-time Wimbledon champion and 2013 Dubai winner Petra Kvitova in straight sets.

Muguruza did not look like being one of the scalps as her title defence continued against Veronika Kudermetova. But after taking the first set, the reigning WTA Tour Finals champion went down 3-6 6-4 6-4.

French Open champion Krejcikova, beaten by Muguruza in the final last year, also exited the tournament at the hands of Dayana Yastremska 6-3 7-6 (7-3). Yastremska will next face Czech Republic's Marketa Vondrousova, who beat Varvara Gracheva.

Iga Swiatek let a set lead slip to Jelena Ostapenko, while two-time Dubai champion Elina Svitolina collapsed to lucky loser Jil Teichmann 7-6 (7-0) 6-2. Up next for Ostapenko is Kvitova in the last 8 match.

Jabeur, a winner against Jessica Pegula, was the only seed to win in a ruthless round of 16. However, her reward in a still stacked quarter-final draw is a meeting with Simona Halep, another who has twice won in Dubai.

(With Agency/OPTA inputs)