DUBAI: Karolina Pliskova, the striking 22-year-old who is part of a new wave on the women’s tour, upset the seedings for a second time at the Dubai Open to reach the semifinals on Thursday.

Pliskova also turned a surprising match dramatically on its head from a set and 1-3 down during a 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 win over her 11th seeded compatriot Lucie Safarova.

Last week the six-foot one-inch Czech with one of the steepest and most dangerous first serves in the game reached the Antwerp semis, and last month she became the youngest top 20 player by breaking into the top score for the first time.

However Pliskova had to survive a crisis at 5-5 in the second set when she slipped to 15-40, within one solid blow of probable defeat, before she changed the psychology of the match utterly in an emotion-turning last point of the tie-break.

It happened after Safarova reached the net in a favorable position, only for Pliskova to throw up an adequate lob that enabled her to counter-attack with radar accuracy through a gap in the net-player’s coverage.

Her victory followed an even tighter three-set success the previous day against Ana Ivanovic, the fourth-seeded former world number one, and ensured that she maintains one of the eight best win-loss records this year, having hit more than 100 aces.

“I’m really happy that I was able to achieve this,” said Pliskova, conscious that Safarova was seeking revenge for defeat in Antwerp and had been buoyed by a straight sets win over titleholder Venus Williams the day before.

“I was able to stay relaxed and that was important,” she added, although she acknowledged that she had had an important piece of luck during the climactic moments of the second set tie-break when Safarova was three points from victory.

Begu leads march in Rio

In Rio de Janeiro, second-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania reached the quarterfinals of the Rio Open on Wednesday, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 6-2, 6-4.

Several other seeded players also advanced to the quarterfinals at the WTA-ATP event, South America’s biggest clay-court tournament.

No. 5 Johanna Larsson of Sweden defeated local hope Gabriela Ce 7-6 (4), 6-4, Germany’s Dinah Pfizenmaier beat No. 4 Madison Brengle 7-5, 0-6, 7-5 and Julia Glushko of Israel defeated Grace Min of the United States 6-3, 6-1.

In first-round matches, No. 6 Anna Schmiedlova beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-3, 6-0 and Polona Hercog defeated An-Sophie Mestach 6-3, 6-4.

On the men’s side, Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer defeated third-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals.

Unseeded Juan Monaco of Argentina also made the last eight, beating Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-1, 7-6 (4).

No. 2 David Ferrer was leading 7-6 (8), 2-0 when Thiemo De Bakker retired from their second-round match, while Joao Souza beat Blaz Rola 6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-4.

Isner upset in Floriday

In Delray Beach, Florida, Marinko Matosevic ousted No. 2 seed John Isner 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the Delray Beach Open on Tuesday.

Marinko Matosevic had never beaten Isner in three previous meetings, all in 2014.

The 29-year-old Isner, a semifinalist in Delray the past three years, struggled throughout the 75-minute match, slapping forehands into the middle of the net and dropping serve to go down 4-3 in the first set and then again in the first game of the second set.

Matosevic, who reached his only ATP final here in 2012, saved a break point in the eighth game of the second set. Isner then hit three straight aces to save a break point and hold serve for 4-5.

In other matches, top-seeded Kevin Anderson earned a 6-3, 6-3 win over qualifier John-Patrick Smith, an Australian who honed his game at the University of Tennessee.

Three Americans moved into the second round. Tim Smyczek beat 17-year-old wild card Stefan Kozlov 7-5, 6-2, while Donald Young, another semifinalist in Memphis, defeated Croatia’s Ivan Dodig 7-5, 7-5. Seventh-seeded Steve Johnson advanced when Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan retired because of illness while down 6-3, 4-1.

Three of the four teens in the draw also won their matches. Seventeen-year-old Russian Andrey Rublev, a wild card ranked No. 370, won the first ATP match of his career with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 victory over veteran Dudi Sela of Israel.

Two qualifiers, 18-year-old Thanasi Kokkinakis from Australia and 19-year-old Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, also moved on. Kokkinakis beat Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic 6-2, 6-3, and Nishioka defeated Dutchman Igor Sijsling 7-5, 6-1. Rublev was last year’s No. 1-ranked junior in the world.