Tennis News

DUBAI, UAE – Last week, historic rainfall wreaked havoc on the Qatar Total Open schedule, where former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki reached the final.

Now it’s looking like the bad weather has followed her across the Gulf all the way to Dubai, where it delayed the start of her quarterfinal against CiCi Bellis.

Wozniacki, whose nickname is “Sunshine,” has figured out the culprit behind all of Dubai’s weather woes:

“At this point, I was just, it’s me. I’m bringing the rain,” she laughed in her post-match press conference.

“You know, even in Doha and in Dubai, I come and it’s raining. I step on the court and it’s raining. I was, like, this is deja vu from Doha last week!”

But Wozniacki probably doesn’t mind the rain too much. After all, it’s bringing out some of her best tennis.

“I have a winning record with this rain. Just bring it on. I’m ready for it.”

Waiting for the rain to stop… ?☔️ pic.twitter.com/t04KiqURvx

— WTA (@WTA) February 23, 2017

“I am very happy how I played the last game – it was great,” the Latvian told press after winning in an hour and 21 minutes.

Anastasija Sevastova is first through to @DDFTennis Semifinals!

Slides past Wang 6-4, 7-5! pic.twitter.com/Wh9AeknZ44

— WTA (@WTA) February 23, 2017

Currently ranked No.35, she will reach a career high on Monday after her campaign in Dubai.

Yet she had struggled to dominate this quarterfinal thanks to her opponent’s battling spirit, and it was Wang who struck first, breaking serve to take a 3-1 lead in the opening set.

The 26-year-old hit right back, though, and went on to take the first set – but Wang was not ready to give up. Even after falling behind by a break of serve in the second set, she clawed her way right back into it to level up at 5-5.

Despite the Chinese player’s determination, Sevastova eventually managed to serve it out on her third match point to secured herself a deserved semifinal berth against either CiCi Bellis or Caroline Wozniacki.

“I’m going to watch the match,” Sevastova added. “CiCi played an amazing match yesterday, Caroline has a perfect record against me…we’ll see how it is tomorrow.”

DUBAI, UAE – Chan Hao-Ching and Yaroslava Shvedova shocked top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic to make it through to the semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

The fifth-seeded pair won through in a thrilling decider to take the match 7-5, 3-6, 10-3.

“We lost in a super tiebreaker and still I think we had lots of opportunities,” said Mladenovic afterwards. “We had a big lead in the first set and I think we should have closed it out and won probably, but it’s tennis, and the girls are playing well as well and in the third set anything can happen.”

Mladenovic was not too disappointed, however, adding that she and Garcia were both working on their singles game while competing in doubles.

“It’s not easy, it’s just our second tournament of the year,” she said. “I still think we had a good run in Melbourne – lost in the semis – here we had a tough tournament. It’s our goal this year, we are going to be more focused on our singles and we are trying new things, like we are switching sides every set and like really working on our singles game.”

The 23-year-old remains hopeful that she and her partner will impress over the course of the year.

“It’s just the beginning of the season,” she pointed out. “We are looking forward, the season is very long and Indian Wells, Miami coming up soon so everything is positive.”

Second seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina progressed in a topsy-turvy clash with Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, winning 6-1, 3-6, 10-5.

Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai had a straightforward quarterfinal against Chan Yung-Jan and Martina Hingis, winning in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.