Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships: Iga Swiatek storms into semi-finals as Sorana Cirstea makes epic comeback
Top seed Iga Swiatek defeats Australian Open finalist Qinwen Zheng to storm into the semi-finals of the Dubai Championships; watch over 80 tournaments a year, including the US Open, exclusively live on Sky Sports Tennis
Thursday 22 February 2024 23:19, UK
World No 1 Iga Swiatek stormed into the semi-finals of the Dubai Championships while Sorana Cirstea saved six match points before upsetting Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in an epic comeback win.
Swiatek, bidding for her eighth career WTA 1000 title this week in Dubai, defeated Zheng 6-3 6-2 for her seventh consecutive win in the Middle East following her third straight victory at the Qatar Open on Saturday.
The Pole claimed a 25th victory in 26 matches against Australian Open runner-up Zheng and she will now play the winner of the match between third seed Coco Gauff and Anna Kalinskaya.
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Elena Rybakina withdrew from the tournament due to gastrointestinal illness which allowed the unseeded Jasmine Paolini to advance to the semi-finals.
Paolini will face another unseeded player in Cirstea, who pulled off a remarkable comeback from a set and 5-1 down to defeat Vondrousova 2-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-2.
The Romanian saved six match points en route to notching her 21st career Top 10 win.
"This has to be the biggest comeback of my career," Cirstea said in her on-court interview.
"To be honest, at a set and 5-1, I wasn't thinking about winning any more. I was like, at least make it nice for the public, at least make it longer and give them a bit nicer tennis. I still don't know how I managed it."
Gauff beaten in quarter-finals by Kalinskaya
World No 3 Coco Gauff was defeated 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the quarter-finals by qualifier Anna Kalinskaya as she registered her second Top 10 win of the week to advance to the semi-finals in Dubai.
With the win, Australian Open quarter-finalist Kalinskaya becomes the fourth qualifier to make the Dubai semi-finals and is the first since Wimbledon champion Vondrousova in 2022. She will now face Swiatek for a place in the final.
"I'm super happy about my game here," Kalinskaya said on court. " My goal was to win a match here and I finally did it.
"She's a great player, a great fighter. I could feel the tension until the last point so it was very important on my side to stay calm and stay aggressive."
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