DUBAI: Sara Errani struggled through a match littered with 39 break point chances to post a difficult 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 defeat of Madison Brengle on Thursday for a place in semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The Italian who played the 2013 final in Dubai against Petra Kvitova will Friday face off against Caroline Garcia after the 38th-ranked Frenchwoman beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-4.
Defending champion Simona Halep of Romania and Garbine Muguruza of Spain lost in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships on Wednesday to leave the tournament without any of its eight seeded players.
Top-seeded Halep was ousted by former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 7-6 (2), 6-2, while second-seeded Muguruza was upset by Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Fourth-seeded Petra Kvitova also lost Wednesday night to American Madison Brengle 0-6, 7-6 (1), 6-3.
The 22nd-ranked Errani is the only player left who has ever made an impression in Dubai, with the remainder of the field all newcomers to potential success at the Aviation Club.
“She did not miss a ball,” Errani said. “It’s not easy to play against her. In the beginning there was a lot of wind.”
Errani fought from 1-4 down in the final set after starting off poorly by dropping the first to No. 60 Brengle.
The Italian converted on ten of 22 break points while American Brengle converted seven of 17.
“It was difficult for me to play the ball, I could have lost easily, I just kept fighting.
“Just to be in the semifinal for me is an amazing result. I’ll try to play the next match, doing my best.”
Garcia recovered after two losses to Petkovic, who is playing this season with a new coaching and fitness team in place.
“You always have to fight and work hard against Andrea, she is big fighter, always trying to come back,” Garcia said.
“It was very difficult conditions, very windy. Sometimes it was not very nice tennis, not very rhythmic, but you have to stay focused and, just keep your tactics.”
Garcia owns a 4-2 record over Errani, whom she beat this month in Fed Cup play,
In the other two quarterfinals, Ana Ivanovic was facing Barbora Strycova and American CoCo. Vandeweghe was taking on Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine.
Wawrinka struggles
French Open champion Stan Wawrinka was made to work for it but eventually squeezed into the Marseille Open quarter-finals with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8) win over Sergiy Stakhovsky on Wednesday.
The top seed could hardly have been expecting such a tough second round test from his Ukrainian opponent, who is ranked 81st in the world.
It was only the second meeting between the pair and went better for the world number four than their first, in which he was eliminated from the US Open first round in four sets in 2012.
