Today's Edition
Two more seeds rolled out while another two advanced to the quarter-finals as the 26th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge entered its business end here at the Habtoor Grand Resort, on Wednesday.
Fifth seed Maria Timofeeva went down 7-6 (10), 1-6, 5-7 to Dutch girl Arianne Hartono in a massive clash lasting more than three hours, while eighth seed Ekaterina Makarova succumbed 0-6, 6-2, 2-6 against Nigina Abduraimova from Uzbekistan.
However, holding up well was seed No. 3 Rebecca Sramkova as she took less than an hour to breeze past Thailand's Peangtarn Plipuech 6-1, 6-3, while Yulia Hatouka became the fourth entrant into the last eight stages with a smooth 6-4, 6-3 result against Croatia's Tena Lukas, in the last singles match of the day.
On Tuesday, red-hot Australian and fourth seed Arina Rodionova – who came here with back-to-back titles in the last two weeks – had joined No. 6 Tereza Martincova and former world No. 2 Vera Zvonareva as the first major players to bow out of this tournament.
Hartono was relieved after coming through a tough second-round encounter against Timofeeva. The match lasted three hours and 9 minutes.
"This is amazing," she said of her performance. "In the recent past I have struggled in such close matches. But today I was more than happy that I was able to find my way through and make it to another day here in ideal conditions. The key for me today was to stay more consistent and aggressive in my shot-making, and this paid off in the end."
Hartono is the niece of Indonesian players, Deddy and Lukky Tedjamukti. She also won the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship winner in 2018. Unseeded Abduraimova was pleased with her form against a more solid player like Makarova.
"Moving into the quarter-finals is a good feeling, but even more pleasing is the way I managed to tackle Ekaterina," she said.
"The idea now on is to just stick to my game without putting any expectations on myself. Things get tough if I over-think. I will just step out on court and let my game do the talking."
Slovakia's Sramkova was in a mighty hurry to get off court as she skipped through her second-round match against Thai opponent Plipuech in just 58 minutes. "I've not been feeling too good and have been taking antibiotics for a cold since the past few days now. So it was best to get the job done as soon as possible and get some additional rest," Sramkova said.
Meanwhile in the doubles, Watson teamed up with Olivia Nicholls to win 6-4, 6-4 against Lola Radivojevic and Isabella Shinikova to enter the semi-finals, while India's Prarthana G Thombare and Anastasia Tikhonova also landed in the last four stage with a 6-4, 6-3 win against the British pairing of Emily Appleton and Alicia Barnett.
