Martic and Halep advance at the Dubai Duty Free Championship

The 2nd part of the quarterfinal day at the Dubai Duty Free Championship started off with a match between Martic and Kontaveit. The Croatian was having a great tournament so far and that trend continued today. The 1st set was a very close affair and it had to go down to the wire. Kontaveit served better overall but Martic was better in the rallies. She was stronger from the baseline and won more points. In the end, that proved enough for a close 7-6 1st set victory.

The 2nd set was a completely different story. Martic won it 6-1 but it wasn't quick nor easy. The complete set took almost 40 minutes to complete despite the dominant result. The key was clinical play in key moments. She won all 3 break points she had and was simply too powerful from the baseline.

After a disappointing outing in Australia, Simona Halep is back on the court and naturally eyeing trophies. In order to do that she had to defeat Aryna Sabalenka today. It didn't start off greatly as she lost the 1st set 3-6. She simply wasn't good on her own serve particularly her 1st serve. She only won 46 of those points and that is not enough at the highest level of tennis.

She was much better moving forward. She equalised the score after a dominant 6-2 2nd set victory. She was superb on her own serve hitting it at an 81 % rate while also conveyed over 70 % of those points. Her opponent couldn't match her from the baseline nor produce good serves and she found herself quickly down.

The 3rd set was a copy of the 2nd. While not as convincing on her 1st serve as in the previous set, Sabalenka was even worse. Winning below 40 % of her 1st serves wasn't going to cut it and she lost it 2-6. It was a good response from Halep after losing the opening set and she can continue her level she might just win another Dubai trophy.

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