Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia returns the ball to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland during their quarter-final match of the Qatar Total Open, yesterday.
Two-time Grand Slam winner, Svetlana Kuznetsova along with Petra Kvitova and Aryna Sabalenka made it to today’s semi-finals of the Qatar Total Open.
Yesterday at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex, two-time Doha finalist Kuznetsova dished out some vintage stuff to register a 6-4, 6-4 straight sets win over fourth seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
The 34-year-old, who has not lost a set so far, took one hour and 36 minutes to overcome the windy conditions and the fourth seed to reach her first semi-final of the season.
The last semi-final for the Russian in Doha was in 2007 when she lost to Justine Henin in the final.
“I have amazing memories (in Qatar). It was my first time when I beat Justine here and it was like I was a kid, I was 19 and I moved from number 30 something to 13 or 14 and it was amazing. It was so long ago it was like another life, but it really happened to me,” Kuznetsova said.
“I’m back again in the semis. I didn’t expect it that early. I’ve been working hard for this and it’s nice that the work pays off,” she added.
The last Russian standing from her golden generation, she hit 39 winners to only 15 unforced errors. She started off by notching 21 winners in the first set to gain early advantage over Bencic and maintained the momentum in the second set.
After falling out of the top 150 last August, the two-time Grand Slam winner is back to 46 and the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati last summer was the last time she made it to the last four stage.
The victory marks 2004 and 2007 runner-up Kuznetsova’s 19th match win in her 11th appearance in Doha, tying former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki for the all-time total record at the tournament, and moves the Russian into her first semi-final here since 2007.
The win also avenges a 7-6(4), 6-4 defeat at the hands of Bencic earlier this month in front of her home crowd in St. Petersburg - indeed, this is the first time in five attempts that Kuznetsova has won a match point against the Swiss No.1, with her only previous win in the series coming via retirement at Wuhan 2016.
For the Swiss, this was her third loss in the quarter-final stage this year after reverses in Adelaide and St. Petersburg.
With her fluent win yesterday the former World No. 2 has now set up a semi-final date against ninth seed Sabalenka.
The Belarusian rallied from a set down to defeat unseeded World No.37 Saisai Zheng 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 to end the Chinese three-game winning streak in Doha including Wednesday night’s thrilling 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 comeback win over World No.6 Kiki Bertens of The Netherlands.
Zheng took the first set on another day of tough windy conditions while Sabalenka won the tie-break to take the match to the decider. In the final set, played some tennis to move into her second semi-final of the season. Sabalenka ultimately hit through a dogged opponent whose variety had initially threatened to outdo her, ultimately notching up 29 winners to 37 unforced errors.
The 21-year-old had been upset by Zheng in their first meeting last August in the San Jose final, but with yesterday’s win has now scored two victories in a row to move ahead in their head-to-head.
In the other quarter-final, two-time Wimbledon winner Kvitova overcame tricky conditions and trickier opposition in the form of an on-fire Ons Jabeur, outlasting the Tunisian, 7-6(2), 7-6(4) to reach the Qatar Total Open semi-finals.
The 2018 champion twice trailed Jabeur by a break in the second set and saved two set points before securing the Centre Court victory - her ninth in a row in Doha - after one hour and 44 minutes.
