Halep, Wozniacki Set Up Semifinal Clash in Dubai

Simona Halep made her way into the Dubai Duty Free Championships semifinals on Thursday afternoon, knocking off sixth-seeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, avenging her defeat to Makarova at last month’s Australian Open.

Halep rolled 6-3 in the first set, but was pushed back by Makarova in the second as the Russian took it 6-1 in a little more than a half hour.

The Romanian then took a 5-3 advantage in the deciding set, but lost her break advantage and Makarova got it back to 5-5. From there, Halep held and broke back to take the decider 7-5 and clinch the victory.

“There were ups and downs. It wasn’t easy to be in control the whole match because she’s a good player,” said Halep. “I played really well in the first set, but then in the second set she started to hit stronger, and I think I was one step further behind the baseline, which wasn’t good for me. But I just tried to relax and go forward in the court more and take the ball faster, and I’m really happy it ended up being a good match for me. It means a lot, because I need more matches now.”

Halep needed four tries at match point before she closed it out on the fifth one.

The win puts her in the semifinals where will take on Caroline Wozniacki. The third-seeded Dane edged 10th-seeded Flavia Pennetta 7-5 in the opening set of her Thursday match before rolling 6-0 in the second to reach the Dubai final four.

The other semifinal will see Karolina Pliskova take on Garbine Muguruza.

The 17th seeded Pliskova came back from a set down to beat her Czech compatriot Lucie Safarova 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-1 earlier Thursday.

“I have to say Lucie played really well today,” said Pliskova. “I would say she deserved to win as well, but there could only be one winner of course. So I feel a little bit sorry for her. But it was a great match.”

Pliskova, who had never even been to the quarterfinals of a Premier-5 level tournament before this year, is now into her third semifinal of the season.

Her semifinal opponent, Muguruza, also had to come back from a set down to move into the final four as the Spaniard took out her compatriot 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3.

“I had a lot of set points in the first set—I think three—so I was sad to lose that set,” said Muguruza. “But I told myself that if I wanted to win this match I couldn’t play badly in the second set. My only chance was to win the second set, so I gave it my all, and I was able to do it.”

Click here to learn more about the Dubai Duty Free Championships.