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by IANS |
Dubai, Feb 22 (IANS) World no. 3 American Coco Gauff fought back from a set down to seal a nail-biting three-set 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskovato to claim a quarterfinal spot at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The reigning US Open champion Gauff collected the win over Pliskova after 1 hour and 53 minutes of play, edging ahead 2-1 in their head-to-head.
With several seeds already dispatched by lesser-ranked opponents at this week’s WTA 1000 event, Gauff narrowly avoided becoming the latest big-name casualty as she moved into the quarterfinals after a rollercoaster battle that kept fans fixed to the edge of their seats.
Gauff will next Anna Kalinskaya, who defeated 2022 Dubai champion and world No. 9 Jelena Ostapenka, 6-4, 7-5, earlier on Wednesday.
In other action, World No1 Iga Swiatek saw off No15 seed and two-time former champion Elina Svitolina in the third round on Wednesday night. The Pole star has now won 25 of her last 26 matches and is on a 13-match winning streak against Top 20 players.
Taking her winning streak in the Middle East this month to six successive matches, Swiatek beat her Ukrainian opponent in straight sets 6-1, 6-4 to progress to the quarterfinals where she now faces Zheng Qinwen of China.
World No. 7 Zheng booked her place in the last eight by defeating Anastasia Potapova in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. She has now won 26 of her last 27 matches against players outside the Top 20 with the sole loss in that time coming last week to Leylah Fernandez.
While Svitolina secured back-to-back titles here in 2017 and 2018, Swiatek, Zheng and the other six players remaining in the tournament -- Coco Gauff, Sorana Cirstea, Marketa Vondrousova, Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini, and Anna Kalinskaya -- are all gunning for a maiden title.
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