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Cirstea sets date with Wozniacki in Dubai

Italian Sara Errani is fourth of eight seeds to fall at this year’s event.

Sorana Cirstea booked a clash with Caroline Wozniacki in Thursday’s quarter-finals thanks to a two-sets-to-one victory over fourth seeded Italian Sara Errani here on Wednesday evening. The Romanian carried the greater weight of shot for much of this round of 16 tie on her way to a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 triumph.

Errani is the fourth of eight seeds to fall at this year’s event in the wake of earlier exits for Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber and Agnieszka Radwanska — the remainder left in the women’s main draw being Jelena Jankovic, Petra Kvitova, Serena Williams and Wozniacki.

The Danish eighth seed had earlier edged a see-saw encounter with German qualifier Annika Beck 6-4, 6-4. Wozniacki broke thrice in the opening six games to lead 5-1, only for Beck to hit back with two breaks of her own to reduce the deficit back to 5-4 and on serve.

Nonetheless, Beck then dropped her serve for the fourth time in the first set to lose it on a nervy double fault. Beck subsequently rallied in the second set, breaking twice to Wozniacki’s one break of service to lead 3-2 after five topsy-turvy games.

Wozniacki though found her range once more on her returns and claimed four of the next five games, with three breaks to Beck’s one, to close it out over on Court One.

“It wasn’t easy,” the world number 11 conceded. “I didn’t serve very well, but I started off pretty well and I was up 5-1. You then think to yourself: ‘Oh, that’s that first set under the belt,’ but she’s a fighter. She gets a lot of balls back and mixes up the rhythm and the pace of the ball and I just started to not really hit through the ball, but just place it.

“She started to get some points back and, once I wanted to hit again, I was like: ‘Okay, I don’t feel as comfortable as I did in the beginning.’ All of a sudden, the match started where I could have closed it off and not let her in.

“I’m just happy to be through. It’s nice to get these matches in such a difficult tournament because every match is difficult. It’s not like you get an easy one somewhere. When you play some other tournaments, you have the chance to actually get into them. Here, you have to be ready from the start. It’s like a sprint. I like that. You have to be ready and play your best from the start.” Elsewhere, over on Court Three, Flavia Pennetta capped a productive day by teaming up with Samantha Stosur to oust the third-seeded pairing of Kveta Peshchke and Katarina Srebotnik from the doubles fold. She had earlier knocked out Polish second seed Radwanska from the singles competition.

Meanwhile, France’s Alize Cornet will play either the reigning DDFTC champion Kvitova or Carla Suarez Navarro following her 6-3, 6-4 success over Belgian Kirsten Flipkens. Kvitova and Suarez Navarro were contesting their last-16 encounter on Centre Court as Khaleej Times went to press last night.alex@khaleejtimes.com