Dubai Duty Free 2019, UAE, WTA Premier

[britbox]

DATE: Feb 17 - 23, 2019
SURFACE: Hard
FINANCIAL COMMITMENT: $2,828,000
SINGLES DRAW SIZE: 64
DEFENDING CHAMPION: Elina Svitolina

Seeds:

1 OSAKA, Naomi
2 KVITOVA, Petra
3 HALEP, Simona
4 PLISKOVA, Karolina
5 KERBER, Angelique
6 SVITOLINA, Elina
7 BERTENS, Kiki
8 SABALENKA, Aryna

The Tournament:

The tournament is staged at the picturesque Aviation Club, which features the immensely popular Irish Village pub and an extensive range of recreational and entertainment facilities including a gym and spa. The Dubai Tennis Stadium also serves as a leading concert venue.

Justine Henin has the tournament record with four titles followed by Venus Williams with three. Other former champions include WTA superstars Lindsay Davenport, Elena Dementieva, Martina Hingis, Petra Kvitova, Amelie Mauresmo and Caroline Wozniacki. Liezel Huber has the most doubles titles in Dubai history with five. Naomi Osaka heads the field at the 2019 event.


About Dubai

Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. Burj Khalifa, an 830m-tall tower, dominates the skyscraper-filled skyline.

At its foot lies Dubai Fountain, with jets and lights choreographed to music. On man-made islands just offshore is Atlantis, the Palm, a resort with water and marine-animal parks.

Tourism Guide:



Fun Facts About Dubai:

Unlike some Muslim countries, the weekend in Dubai is no longer Thursday and Friday, but Friday and Saturday.

There are 7 times more foreigners than locals in the United Arab Emirates

Dubai has no standard street address system

There are no personal or income taxes in Dubai

Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building (828 m (2,717 ft)163 floors) stands in Dubai. For comparison, the height of the Eiffel Tower is 300m.

 

[britbox]

The Draw for Dubai

 

[britbox]

 

[Hoergren]

Big upset was underway

 

[kskate2]

She had 61 UE's? That's equal to 15 games.

 

[Hoergren]

 

[Hoergren]

Caroline: I tried to get ready, but I could feel that I just wasn't ready to do my best. If I go out on court, it's because I feel I can do my best. I just didn't feel I could do that. It's too bad. I'm disappointed and sad. I'll stay here for a few days. Hopefully I'm 100% soon
Caroline Wozniacki: With my RA illness, my immune system isn't what it should be, so I don't recover as quickly as I normally do. I'll stay in Dubai for a few more days. The warm weather helps me.
Piotr: I don't want to push Caroline. The most important thing is that she gets well. It was easy to make this decision as soon as we saw her warm up.

 

[kskate2]

That's too bad Woz is not ready.
Other results:
Mertens can't back up her big win. Going down in 3 to a [Q]
Osta's skid continues losing in straights to the [Q] Brady
Goerges falls to Riske in straights
Kontaveit, Strycova, Buzarnescu and Vekic all eliminated in straights

 

[Hoergren]

 

[isabelle]

Garcia beaten

 

[kskate2]

Kasatkina escaped jail in R1, but not today.

 

[Hoergren]

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I will give her a pass this time,she did have a back injury and as you said in your post she did look rusty maybe to a lack of practice.

 

[kskate2]

The real test will be how she handles defending these 1000 points from IW. If she can go deep there then I would say the Sascha hangover is behind her.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Garcia beaten

Garcia should not be losing to a qualifer,she has all the tools in her game,she is a pleasure to watch,time after time it is her concentration in matches and mental toughness that lets her down.

 

[Hoergren]

 

[Hoergren]

 

[tenisplayrla08]

And Bencic comes through!!!!!! Saved 6 match points. Started well. Got herself in a hole. Came back. Won her first match point. Tough loss for Sabalenka. Unfortunately she's got Halep next. If she can win that she can really gain some ranking ground to get back up near the top where she belongs. But I'm not sure she'll be able to take down Halep. Not after this 2 and half hour battle.

 

[Hoergren]

 

[isabelle]

Hsieh Su Wei beat Pliskova