Semifinals were set up on Thursday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
After saving six match points the day before against Aryna Sabalenka, 21-year-old Belinda Bencic went on to eliminate third seed Simona Halep, who was tired, couldn’t serve properly because she felt her Achilles and had to deal with cramps. As you can see in our photos by Jimmie48, Bencic was ecstatic about the 4-6 6-4 6-2 win, as was her boyfriend Martin Hromkovic. Bencic’s semifinal opponent will be defending champion Elina Svitolina, seeded sixth, who beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 6-3. Our gallery also features some nice practice photos of Svitolina and her boyfriend Gael Monfils.
Second seed Petra Kvitova enjoyed a comfortable victory over Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4 6-0 and will next face Hsieh Su-wei, who followed up her upset of Angelique Kerber with the elimination of another big name, fourth seed Karolina Pliskova 6-4 1-6 7-5.
MORE PHOTOS FROM DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019:
- Wednesday: Halep, Kvitova reach quarterfinals, Kerber out
- Tuesday: Second-round matches, Osaka loses right after splitting from coach Bajin
- Monday: Osaka practices with coach Yoshikawa, first round completes
- Sunday: First round kicks off, top players warm up
