Valentine’s Day in Doha saw four dominant performances and demonstrative send-offs for the #3 and #4 seeds. In doubles, the top three seeds survived the quarters, while the #7-seeds sent the #4-seeds packing…
On center court, singles action started with Kerber and Cetkovska. After delivering Germany in to the Fed Cup World Group Semifinals last weekend in the Slovak Republic, Angelique Kerber had a first round bye here in Doha. Cetkovska had to play her way through qualifying and take-down seeds Sloane Stephens and Na Li en-route to the quarters. No surprise, the more rested, less tested Kerber unloaded on the Czech and only dropped 1-game during the match.
Petra Kvitova had a nasty habit of falling behind in nearly every set she played this week in Doha. She was able to overcome against Serena Williams and Lucie Safarova, but once down to Jelena Jankovic – the Serb never took her foot of the gas. Jelena only lost 4-games in the match and returns to the Qatar Total Open semifinals for the first time since 2011.
Romania’s Simona Halep has been having some issues with her Achilles tendon this week, but you wouldn’t know it by the way she crushed the #4-seed Sara Errani. Now ranked in the top-10, Halep knew she needed to play fast and limit her time on the court. The aggressive strategy worked flawlessly, as she gave-up only two games in the first set. During the post-match interview she openly admitted that revenge felt good after the creaming she received from Sara in Miami last year (1-6, 0-6).
Among the remaining four here in Doha, Agnieszka Radwanska has spent the least amount of time on court. After she single-handedly delivered Poland into the World Group Playoffs last weekend, she had a first round bye in Doha. She only dropped five games to Cirstea in round-two, and Lucic-Baroni retired during their match in the third-round. To put it into perspective, Radwanska only played 29 games to reach the quarterfinals. Her opponent, Yanina Wickmayer, played 63 games to reach the quarters – more than double the amount of tennis. You know where this is going…Wickmayer developed leg-problems in the second-set and was only able to win three games off Radwanska the entire match.
[lightbox link=”http://youtu.be/BYNPMw67eZU” title=”Happy Valentine’s Day!” thumb=”http://andytayloronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Heart-Play-70×70.png” align=”right” frame=”true” icon=”video”] And with that, the Qatar Total Open Semifinals are set – Starting at 3:30p Saturday at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha. Psst…Happy Valentine’s Day. Click on the heart to check out the video.
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RESULTS: Qatar Total Open 2014. Day Five. Singles Quarterfinals.
- [2] A Radwanska (POL) d Y Wickmayer (BEL) 62 61
- [5] J Jankovic (SRB) d [3] P Kvitova (CZE) 61 63
- [7] S Halep (ROU) d [4] S Errani (ITA) 62 60
- [6] A Kerber (GER) d [Q] P Cetkovska (CZE) 61 60
RESULTS: Qatar Total Open 2014. Day Five. Doubles Quarterfinals.
- [1] S Errani (ITA) / R Vinci (ITA) d [WC] J Jankovic (SRB) / A Kleybanova (RUS) 46 62 15-13
- [2] S Hsieh (TPE) / S Peng (CHN) d M Niculescu (ROU) / K Zakopalova (CZE) 61 61
- [3] K Peschke (CZE) / K Srebotnik (SLO) d A Kudryavtseva (RUS) / A Rodionova (AUS) 75 62
- [7] A Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) / N Petrova (RUS) d [4] C Black (ZIM) / S Mirza (IND) 46 64 14-12
SATURDAY: Qatar Total Open 2014. Day Six. Singles Semifinals.
- [6] A Kerber (GER) vs [5] J Jankovic (SRB)
- [7] S Halep (ROU) vs [2] A Radwanska (POL)
SATURDAY: Qatar Total Open 2014. Day Six. Doubles Semifinals.
- [1] S Errani (ITA) / R Vinci (ITA) vs [3] K Peschke (CZE) / K Srebotnik (SLO)
- [7] A Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) / N Petrova (RUS) vs [2] S Hsieh (TPE) / S Peng (CHN)
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