Abu Dhabi Open: Elena Rybakina through, eliminated as Heather Watson

The defending champion Elena Rybakina ran the semi-finals of the Abu Dhabi Open with a 6-2 4-6 7-6 (7-4) victory against ONS Jabeur.

In a remaining of the 2022 Wimbledon Finales, which Rybakina won – the Kazakh broke twice to claim the opening rate in less than 30 minutes.

The former Jabeur in the world number two checked the second set before the third achieved a draw after Rybakina did not convert two match points.

Rybakina number five came from behind to win the tie break and set up a semi-finals against the Swiss Wildcard Belinda Bencic, which defeated the market for the marketa of Drousova on Thursday with 6: 3.

Elsewhere, the eighth seed Leylah Fernandez suffered a surprise 7-5 4-6 6: 2 against the world number 51 Ashlyn Krueger, while the British Heather Watson and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani from the fourth seed Zhang Shuai and Kristina Mladenovic 5-7 6-2 were beaten in 10-3 in the women’s double quarter-finals.

Shuai and Mladenovic will compete in the last four four against another British – Olivia Nicholls – and their Australian partner Olivia Gadecki.

The top seeds Jelena Ostapenko and Ellen Perez let their quarter-finals against Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez 6-4 6: 4, while Vondrousova and Laura Samsonova Makoto Ninomiya and Ulrikke Eikeri 6-4 6-1 defeated.

In the meantime, the Australian Open Champion Madison Keys has withdrawn from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, which will start on February 16 because of a leg injury. She hasn’t played since she beat Aryna Sabalenka to win her first Grand Slam title last month.