Second seed Karolina Pliskova and Caroline Wozniacki reached the final stage of the rain-affected Qatar Total Open, winning both their quarterfinals and semifinals on yet another wet day in Doha.
Czech world No.3 Pliskova first cruised by Zhang Shuai 6-2 6-0, despite being disturbed by having to warm up five times because of the weather conditions. In the semis, the 24-year-old Pliskova managed to defeat third seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-4 4-6 6-3 for the first time in their four meetings, even though the Slovak was a privileged player, as the forecast allowed her to be the only one to make the final four on Thursday. The semifinal match will stay remembered for Pliskova’s career-best 21 aces! To make things even better, all those aces were accompanied by just one double fault, while Pliskova’s 40 winners by far outnumbered her mere 16 unforced errors.
The former world No.1 Wozniacki, who is all over the news with her sexy photos in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue feature and new boyfriend reveal on Valentine’s Day, is backing up her off-court attention with tennis successes, making the final in Doha with two straight-set victories on Friday. The Dane first finished the quarterfinal against qualifier Lauren Davis 7-5 6-1, which had barely started last night before the rain pushed the match to Friday. Next up for Wozniacki was the celebrated Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig, who was quickly sent packing by the world No.18, falling 6-1 6-2 in one hour and ten minutes.
Wozniacki leads Pliskova 3-0 in career meetings, but all their matches happened in 2013 and 2014, when Pliskova was far from the Top 5. (photos: Jimmie48)
It was a great match between Caro and Kaja. Kaja did well and won her 8th career title!