Hartono makes the most of ideal conditions at Habtoor Grand to reach quarterfinals

Two more seeds rolled out of the 26th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge while another two advanced to the quarter-finals as the popular women’s tournament entered its business end at the Habtoor Grand Resort, on Wednesday.

Fifth seed Maria Timofeeva suffered a similar fate as she did 12 months ago when she was beaten by Arianne Hartono from the Netherlands in a cliff-hanger that lasted well over three hours. Harono, who is of Indonesian and Chinese descent finally wrapped up the win 7-6 (10), 1-6, 5-7.

Eighth seed Ekaterina Makarova was the second ranked player to bit the dust when she lost to Uzbekistan’s Nigina Abduraimova, also in three sets, at 0-6, 6-2, 2-6.

However, holding up well was seed No.3 Rebecca Sramkova as she took less than an hour to breeze past Thailand’s Peangtarn Plipuech 6-1, 6-3, while Yulia Hatouka became the fourth entrant into the last eight stages with a smooth 6-4, 6-3 result against Croatia’s Tena Lukas, in Wednesday’s last singles match.

On Tuesday, red-hot Australian and fourth seed Arina Rodionova – who came here with back-to-back titles in the last two weeks - had joined No. 6 Tereza Martincova and former world No.2 Vera Zvonareva as the first major players to bow out of this tournament.

Top seed Viktoria Hruncakova, second seed Daria Snigur and seventh seed Heather Watson will all be on court for their second round matches to decide the last four making it to the quarter-finals, on Thursday.Rebecca Sramkova

Hartono was relieved after coming through a tough second-round encounter against Timofeeva. The match lasted three hours and 9 minutes and the 27-year-old was delighted to play another day here.

“This is amazing,” she said. “In the recent past I have struggled in such close matches. But today I was more than happy that I was able to find my way through and make it to another day here in ideal conditions.

“The key for me today was to stay more consistent and aggressive in my shot-making, and this paid off in the end,” she added.

Representing the University of Mississippi, Hartono is also won the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championship winner in 2018.

Unseeded Abduraimova was pleased with her form against a more solid player like Ekaterina Makarova and said: “Moving into the quarter-finals is a good feeling, but even more pleasing is the way I managed to tackle Ekaterina.

“The idea now on is to just stick to my game without putting any expectations on myself. Things get tough if I over-think. I will just step out on court and let my game do the talking,” the 29-year-old from Tashkent added.

Slovakia’s Sramkova was in a mighty hurry to get off court as she skipped through her second-round match against Thai opponent Plipuech in just 58 minutes.

“I’ve not been feeling too good and have been taking anti-biotics for a cold since the past few days now. So it was best to get the job done as soon as possible and get some additional rest,” Sramkova said.

“But that aside, Dubai is one place that I love and feel so positive about. No wonder I have had some excellent results here in the past. The idea now would be to enjoy this moment and let it remain for the rest of the week,” she added.

Olivia Nicholls/Heather Watson bt Lola Radivojevic/Isabella Shinikova 6-4, 6-4; Prarthana Thombare/Anastasia Tikhonova bt Emily Appleton/Alicia Barnett 6-4, 6-3; Elena Pridankina/Ksenia Zaytseva bt Nigina Abduraimova/Natalija Stevanovic (walkover); Timea Babos/Vera Zvonareva bt Sarah Beth Grey/Arianne Hartono 6-1, 6-4.