DUBAI: Petra Kvitova cruised into the final of the Dubai Championships yesterday, rolling past Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-4.
Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic, will face Sara Errani of Italy.
Sara Errani, the French Open finalist, continued her upward spiral by beating her best friend and doubles partner Roberta Vinci to reach the 12th final of her career.
The 25-year-old fifth seed did so with a 6-3, 6-3 win over her unseeded fellow Italian to underline why she has been voted the WTA’s most improved player of the year, Vinci is the other half of the world’s top doubles partnership, whose 25-match winning streak last year was the longest by any women’s doubles pair for 18 years.
This week, however, they took a break from doubles to play only singles, but if the idea was also to spend time apart it was only partially successful.
But they found themselves battling each other for an hour and 23 minutes of rather old-style rallies in which slice and accurate placement played a bigger part than power and flailing topspin.
Errani prevailed partly because she imposed her busy approach on the rallies more energetically.
However it was noticeable that she toned down some of her impact grunts, suggesting that comradeship may occasionally have vied with competitiveness for priority.
Errani had earlier said that they spent about 300 days a year together, and Vinci had described it as like “playing against a sister.” “It’s not easy to play your friend,” Errani agreed. “My coach will watch the other semi-final and I will have some treatment and get some rest. I have no preference who I play.”
Cilic in Memphis quarters
In Memphis, Tennessee, top seed Marin Cilic saved three match points en route to a 7-6 (7/2), 3-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory over Igor Sijsling on Thursday night to book a quarterfinal berth in the US Indoor Tennis Championships.
Croatia’s Cilic trailed 4-6 and then 6-7 in the third-set tiebreaker, but won the final three points to take the match from his Dutch foe.
Cilic next faces Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori, who beat qualifier Donald Young 6-3, 6-3.
World No. 63 Denis Istomin reached his fourth ATP quarterfinal of the season, beating Australian veteran Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-2.
Istomin next faces lucky loser Michael Russell, who beat Lukasz Kubot of Poland 6-2, 6-4.
In women’s action in this $1.58 million combined ATP and WTA event, top seed Kirsten Flipkens fell prey in the quarter-finals to the upset bug that saw second-seeded Sofia Arvidsson ousted in the second round.
Seventh-seeded Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova, the winner of this title two years ago, defeated Flipkens 6-7 (11/13), 7-5, 6-3.
In the semifinals, Rybarikova will take on third-seeded German Sabine Lisicki, who cruised past eighth-seeded Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-3, 6-3.
The other semifinal will pit Switzerland’s Stefanie Vogele against Marina Erakovic.
Vogele defeated fourth-seeded Briton Heather Watson 6-1, 6-2, and New Zealand’s Erakovic beat American Jamie Hampton 7-5, 6-2.
