Pliskova, Halep make Dubai finals

4
Wilson Blade 9

Karolina Pliskova, Simona Halep - Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships 2015

Karolina Pliskova and Simona Halep will fight for the $456,000 winner’s trophy at the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, both having survived tense three-setters in the semifinals, especially the Czech.

In the first Friday’s semifinal, Karolina Pliskova prevailed in the tense match against Garbine Muguruza, which featured just three breaks of serve out of a total of 28 break points! Another interesting stat is that in the encounter lasting two hours and 53 minutes, both players won more than 70% of points on their first serves. There was one break per set and the 18th-ranked Pliskova, who is fast approaching the Top 10, was the last one to capitalize, taking the match 6-4 5-7 7-5 after coming from 0-40 in the final game.

It may be of interest to note that Karolina’s much less famous twin sister Kristyna, ranked 137th in the world, is now through to the semifnials of a $50K ITF tournament in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. That’s her eighth victory in a row after many winless months.

In the second Dubai semifinal, the eventual winner Halep straightforwardly lost the first set to Caroline Wozniacki, as the Dane hit just three unforced errors to comfortably take the set 6-2. However, the top-seeded Romanian turned the match around right at the beginning of the second set and actually never looked back all the way until defeating her third-seeded opponent 2-6 6-1 6-1.

4 COMMENTS

  1. This is a great final considering a lot of seeds fell early. This will be a battle of rising stars. I think Karolina can pull an upset here. She really wants to move in the rankings as high as she can. She’s on the verge of cracking Top 10 rankings.

  2. Emman Damian, I wouldn’t really call Halep a rising star, she’s been ranked high for a long time and she’s top seed at this prestigious tournament. As to whether Pliskova can beat Halep, she definitely can, plus, Halep gave the first set so easily to Wozniacki yesterday, while Pliskova had three tense sets against Muguruza.

  3. The Pliskova-Muguruza match was an awesome display of raw power from these two future stars. Along with Madison Keys, these two ladies will accumulate future grand slam wins I believe. And some good rivalries are developing among these rising stars of the WTA. The future certainly looks bright! I am rooting for Pliskova over Halep.

  4. Jim, I’m just reading the Doha draw preview over at James’ Moo’s Tennis Blog, there is a chance that Pliskova and Muguruza will meet again, already in the second round of Doha.

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