DUBAI, UAE - It was a difficult day for the underdogs at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday, with the favorites hitting their stride as the second round of the Premier-level tournament took the courts.
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The day session saw all four seeded players in action moving on comfortably, led by No.4 seed Sam Stosur, who lost a seemingly endless 69-minute second set but regrouped in a big way to cruise past Lucie Safarova, 61 67(5) 61.
"Lucie has got a big game and can be a very dangerous player. When she puts it all together it's hard to play against," Stosur said afterwards. "I thought I was serving really well tonight. That second set I lost it, but I don't think I did that much wrong. I had a few opportunities to try and break late in the second set and wasn't able to take them, but then finally did early in the third."
Awaiting Stosur in the quarterfinals will be No.8 seed Jelena Jankovic, who was broken in an eight-deuce game to go down 3-1 in the first set but bounced back to win 11 of the next 14 games and get by Flavia Pennetta, 64 62.
"I was down a break in the beginning, then I managed to lift up my game and I started playing a lot more aggressively," Jankovic said. "Especially I think I served a lot better than her today. I was holding my service games and I was waiting for the opportunities to break her. Overall I think I played pretty well. Flavia is a great player and is playing well, and it wasn't easy to beat her."
Jankovic leads Stosur in their head-to-head, 4-2. Their last meeting came here in this same round last year, and it couldn't have been closer - Jankovic came back from 4-1 down in the third set to edge Stosur, 63 57 76(4).
"We haven't played each other since the quarterfinals here last year," Stosur said. "It's a good chance for me to try and bounce back from that loss."
Other winners were No.5 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat Israeli wildcard Shahar Peer, 75 64; No.9 seed Sabine Lisicki, who overpowered Czech qualifier Iveta Benesova, 63 63; Ana Ivanovic, who rallied from 4-2 down in the second set to close out Maria Kirilenko, 62 76(4); Julia Goerges, who beat Australian lucky loser Casey Dellacqua, 60 62; and Daniela Hantuchova, who beat Peng Shuai in the first match at night, 75 62.
Ivanovic was pleased with her second set mini-comeback. "It was a little bit of a strange match, especially the second set. There were just so many breaks and return winners. It was hard to get the rhythm. There weren't too many long rallies then all of a sudden you would have one. I had to get down to business and try and work my way through it though. I thought I kept my composure well."
Hantuchova had some very nice words about Peng. "She has improved so much, especially over the last 12 months. She had a great year last year and she has worked really hard on her game - on the tennis side, on the fitness side. She is always going to be one of the toughest players to play against, but she's a great girl. We always practice together. It's nice to see her do so well."
Later, No.3 seed Caroline Wozniacki - who is now the highest seed left in the draw - rolled past Romanian qualifier Simona Halep in straight sets, 62 63.
"It's a great feeling to be back," said Wozniacki, who is the defending champion here too. "I see my picture together with all the other champions and lifting the trophy, it's a great feeling. I wish it could be like this every week. It's nice to see I have some fans here - they were definitely yelling pretty loud out there tonight!"
The tournament was rocked earlier in the day with the withdrawal of World No.1 Victoria Azarenka due to a left ankle injury. Dellacqua took her place.
"It's very disappointing, but it's life, it's sport. I just have to take care of it and that's it," Azarenka said. "Last week I hurt it in the semifinals, and I tried to do everything to be able to play in the final. I took a lot of sacrifice by taking a lot of painkillers, but it didn't get better. I had to adjust my movement and compromise in other parts of my body, which started to hurt, and it's just too much of a risk."
