Krejcikova got a “canary”, but still celebrates her progress to the semifinals! Pliskova and Muchova withdraw from Dubai tournament

The quarter-final programme of the WTA event in Dubai was to bring three Czech representatives. In the end, only Barbora Krejcikova took the court after her compatriots withdrew on Thursday. In the match against the undefeated Sabalenka, she had to bite the “canary” in the first set, but in the end she showed a fantastic turn and will play for the final participation.

This year’s tennis season is going well on all fronts for the Czech team. Good results are being picked up by both long-standing high-profile players and the stars of the future. The prestigious tournament in Dubai attracted the biggest names in the women’s tennis world and the road was thorny for seven Czech women, but we can still enjoy another partial success.

Thursday’s day of the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai was scheduled to bring four matches, but only two of them took place. World No. 1 Iza Swiatek was to face Karolina Pliskova, buoyed, for example, by her sovereign victory over the top-seeded Maria Sakkari.

After a viral illness, Pliskova was eventually forced to withdraw from the tournament and her journey ended without a fight among the top eight. Despite finishing last in the tournament, the native of Louny will move behind Petra Kvitova to 16th in the new edition of the rankings.

Barbora Krejcikova was the other Czech iron in the fire. The currently 30th ranked woman in singles made her way through the tournament over world number eight Kasatkina or compatriot Kvitova. At the gates of the semi-finals she faced her toughest task yet, the then undefeated Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

The start of the match could not have been worse for the Czech player. After half an hour of play, she lost the opening set without winning a single game, thus getting the infamous “canary”. However, the 2021 French Open champion was not discouraged by the unfavourable course, quite the contrary.

Krejcikova started to help herself with a good serve in the second set and kept up with the world number two. After both players lost a single game on serve, the second set went to a tiebreak, in which Sabalenka has been 100% so far this year. However, the unseeded tennis player managed to handle the shortened game in a magnificent way and sent the whole match to a deciding set.

The proverbial scales began to tip heavily in Krejcikova’s favour as she managed to do almost everything she could touch. Sabalenka, on the other hand, started to pile up errors and the result was a sovereign third set in favour of Barbora Krejcikova. After less than two hours and 0::6, 7::6, 6::1, the native of Ivancice will advance to the semifinals, where she will play Jessica Pegula of the United States on Friday afternoon.

The top three seed in the tournament was scheduled to play another Czech, Karolina Muchova, in the semifinals. She had gone through the tournament without losing a single set until Thursday, when she was able to take on the fearsome Belinda Bencic.

However, even that match did not take place. Muchova, like the earlier withdrawn Pliskova, did not take the court due to health problems and will focus on the rest of the season. The best result so far this year will catapult Muchová from the second hundred to the seventy-sixth spot in the rankings.

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