Bengaluru/Dubai, February 19: Sania Mirza and Lucie Hradecka's campaign in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships ended after the Indo-Czech pair lost 6-2, 2-6, 7-10 (super tie-breaker) to Latvia-Ukraine pair of Jelena Ostapenko and Lyudmyla Kichenok in the doubles semifinals on Friday (February 18) night.

Sentimental favourties Mirza and Hradeckato had been in good form right throughout the week in Dubai.

But Ostapenko and Kichenokwho proved too good for them in the last-four encounter.

Dubai Tennis Championships: Halep sets up semifinal clash with Ostapenko; All eyes on Sania Mirza

Mirza and Hradecka, who had received a a wildcard for the WTA 500 Series tournament had earlier defeated the Japan-Serb pair of Aoyama-Krunic 7-5, 6-3 in the quartefinal clash to advance to the last four in Dubai.

On the other hand, Ostapenko and Kichenok had thrashed Japanese/Chinese pair Ena Shibahara and Shuai Zhang 6-0, 6-1 in another last-eight encounter.

Ostapenko beats Hapel to enter final

Meanwhile, Ostapenko's remarkable week of comebacks in Dubai continued with a 2-6, 7-6 (7-0), 6-0 victory over Simona Halep in the semifinals.

The Latvian will play Veronika Kudermetova, who advanced after qualifier Marketa Vondrousova withdrew due to a righ adductor injury, in the final.

Ostapenko has beaten a Grand Slam champion in all four rounds en route to the final, previously taking out Sofia Kenin, Iga Swiatek and Petra Kvitova.

The 24-year-old needed a third-set tie-break to edge the latter two, and coming into the semifinals had spent six hours on court compared to Halep's three hours and 40 minutes.

However, Ostapenko was once again supremely clutch as she pulled off another unlikely escape - one reminiscent at times of her comeback win over Halep in the 2017 Roland Garros final, which she won 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 from a break down in both the second and third sets.

"I knew I have to play aggressive no matter what the score is," Ostapenko said in her on-court interview.

"She really doesn't like to play against players who are playing aggressive and take time away from her.

"At first my legs were, like, standing. They were not moving in the first set. That's why I was missing. When I changed that, everything changed. I don't think I really needed Plan B for this match. I think Plan A had to work well, and that's what happened the second and third sets," Ostapenko added.

The result puts Ostapenko into her 11th career final, sixth at WTA 500 level or above, and third in the past nine months after a title run in Eastbourne and a runner-up showing in Luxembourg last year.

Ostapenko ultimately tallied 36 winners to 49 unforced errors, though across the last two sets those numbers were 27 winners to 20 unforced errors. Halep, who kept her unforced error count to three in the first set, saw that number rise to 17 in the next two - including eight double faults in total.

Also crucial for Ostapenko was her first serve percentage, which increased from 57% in the first set to 72% in the second and 75% in the third.

Throughout the match, Halep found only three winners off the ground, two of which were return winners in the last game.

(With WTA inputs)