Agnieszka Radwanska and Jelena Jankovic opened the semifinal schedule of the day in Dubai. Tied at 1-1 in sets, 6-2 2-6 more precisely, the second set won by eighth-seeded Jankovic, Radwanska refocused on her play and made a crucial break in the second game of the deciding set. The fifth-seeded Pole held all the three service games in the 28-minute last set without losing a point and won 6-2 2-6 6-0.

Julia Goerges will be Radwanska's opponent in the final, after her well-earned 7-6(3) 7-5 victory over defending champion and third seed Caroline Wozniacki, her third straight win over the Dane. The unseeded Goerges, debutante in Dubai, survived Wozniacki's long rallies, as the Dane's unforced errors piled up. Goerges won the first set in a tiebreak, even though she could have closed it out earlier, with a set point at 5-3. In the second set she came back from 4-2 down.

Radwanska and Goerges will play for the Premier Dubai title, the $446,778 that it brings, but also for their WTA rankings breakthroughs. The title would take Radwanska to her Top 5 debut, while Goerges would crack Top 15 for the first time.

It was Radwanska who comfortably won the one and only previous meeting with Goerges, 6-1 6-1 this year in the fourth round of the Australian Open. Also, let's mention the interesting fact that Radwanska's 2012 win-loss record is 14-3 and all the three losses came at the hands of current world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, whom Radwanska criticized for gamesmanship. (via WTA Tour, photos: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus, © Neal Trousdale)

In the night session Dubai quarterfinal, Caroline Wozniacki won the battle of former world No.1s, dismissing Ana Ivanovic 6-3 7-5.

Ivanovic started the match shaky, and after surviving her first service game, double faults and insecurity did their part for the Serb to trail 1-3. When Ivanovic broke Wozniacki in the fifth game, it looked as if she was back in the match, but the luck didn't last long. Wozniacki broke back to lead 4-2 and in seventh game came back from 0-40 down to hold serve for 5-2 and win the set before you knew it. The thrilling second set featured seven breaks of serve and Ivanovic twice retrieved deficits until 5-5 when defending champion Wozniacki broke again and then served out victory on her second match point, a 24-shot running rally.

The first semifinal pair is Jelena Jankovic vs. Agnieszka Radwanska. Wozniacki's semifinal opponent will be Dubai debutante Julia Goerges, winner of a thrilling three-setter against Daniela Hantuchova, 4-6 6-3 6-4. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

World No.1 Victoria Azarenka hurt her ankle in the semifinals en route to her last week's Doha title, and the injury's response was a big question mark for this week's Dubai tournament. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the Belarusian eventually realized she can't play the Premier-level Dubai event and withdrew prior to her opening match. She said she took a lot of painkillers, but nothing could help, as she had to adjust her movements which compromised other parts of her body. She now plans to go to Belarus and spend time with her family.

With Petra Kvitova also out due to illness, defending champion Caroline Wozniacki is the highest seed left in the tournament. The Dane topped her second round opponent Simona Halep 6-2 6-3 and will next play Ana Ivanovic, who defeated Maria Kirilenko 6-2 7-6(4). Other quarterfinal pairs include Julia Goerges vs. Daniela Hantuchova, Jelena Jankovic vs. Samantha Stosur and Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Sabine Lisicki. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

World No.28 Lucie Safarova upset world No.4 and recent No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in the second round of the $2,168,400 Qatar Total Open, even though Wozniacki had three match points at 5-4 in the third set.

The players exchanged patches of dominance throughout the match and it was only a matter of whose patch would finish it. At 5-4 in the decider, on Safarova's serve, Wozniacki stormed to 40-0 to earn herself three match points and it looked as if it was her day. But Safarova fired back and evened the match by winning five successive points. Actually, the Czech scored two more points and led 30-0 at 5-5. It was not over yet, though! Wozniacki worked her way back, and after saving two break points she won the game for 6-5. Safarova again leveled, and despite trailing 0-2 initially in the tiebreak, from 3-3 the Czech won all the remaining points and went away with well-deserved victory. Final score: 4-6 6-4 7-6(3).

Additional info: You know that Vera Zvonareva is defending champion in Doha and that she came to the tournament after a retirement in her quarterfinal at Pattaya. Unfortunately, the sixth-seeded Zvonareva retired from her opening round here, in the second set against Monica Niculescu, because of the same hip injury. Another seeded player is out, No. 8 seed Jelena Jankovic lost to Shahar Peer 7-6(3) 6-2. (photos: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

One of the greatest singers of all time, Whitney Houston, passed away at the age of 48 on February 11, and the whole world was struck, including the WTA community. Therefore, I decided to make a WTA tribute to Whitney by compiling tweets of women's tennis players mentioning the voice behind so many timeless love songs.

Serena Williams

Caroline Wozniacki

Dinara Safina

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Victoria Azarenka

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