WTA Doha: Halep is No. 2 again. Svitolina, Kerber and Bertens reach QF
The top seed and world no. 3 Simona Halep will make progress on the ranking list after reaching the quarter-final in Doha, ousting Lesia Tsurenko 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and 19 minutes. Halep and Tsurenko played for the sixth time and the Romanian grabbed the sixth win thanks to a solid performance on both serve and return, fending off five out of seven break points and stealing more than half of the points on the return, earning five breaks from nine chances. There were almost 15 deuces in games four and five, with Simona who had the upper hand in the pivotal points to open a 5-0 lead and close the set with another break in game eight for a 6-2.
The second set was more fluid and this time Tsurenko had an early lead, breaking at love at 1-1 before Halep rattled off five games in a row, breaking Lesia in games six and eight and sealing the deal with a service winner at 5-3 for the place in the last eight. There, she will face the 9th seed Julia Goerges who took down a lucky loser Alison Riske 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 in two hours and 32 minutes, saving seven out of nine break points and securing five breaks from 14 opportunities to move into the quarters. The German was 6-1, 5-3 ahead when Riske started her comeback, fending off five break points in games nine and ten to reach the tie break that she won 7-5 to prolong the match and stay on the course for a miracle comeback.
It seemed that Julia faded from the court after falling 4-2 behind in the decider but she somehow managed to stop the downfall and grab four straight games, crossing the finish line first and avoiding one of the toughest losses of her career. The 4th seed Elina Svitolina secured a 6-4, 6-4 win over Jelena Ostapenko in 80 minutes, suffering three breaks and responded with five breaks and almost half of the return points won, controlling the pace and leaving Jelena behind to maintain the title course. From 4-1 down, Ostapenko bounced back to 4-4 in the first set before losing eight of the last nine points to hand the opener to her rival.
They traded breaks early in set number two and Elina moved 5-3 up with another break, serving for the match in the next game. Making one last push, Jelena broke back to prolong the encounter although the Ukrainian sealed the deal with four consecutive points on the return in game ten to join Halep and Goerges in the quarters. A qualifier Karolina Muchova defeated Su-Wei Hsieh 6-2, 6-4 for the career-best result while the 5th seed Kiki Bertens came from a set down to overpower Carla Suarez Navarro 2-6, 6-1, 6-1, recovering after a poor start to leave the Spaniard behind in the rest of the clash.
Instead of playing against her sister, Elise Mertens beat Kristyna Pliskova 6-2, 7-6 and in a similar encounter the 3rd seed Angelique Kerber toppled Anett Kontaveit 6-1, 7-6, converting only her eighth match point!
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2N2D3u4
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