New Delhi: The Indian tennis player Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Lucie Hradecka lost the women’s doubles semifinals 6-2, 2-6, 10-7 to Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine in the Dubai Tennis Championships 2022 at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre, Dubai, on Friday, February 18, 2022.
The Indo-Czech pair asserted pressure on the opponents during the opening set. They made broke Ostapenko-Kichenok and saved eleven breakpoints to gain an advantage. The duo won the first set 6-2. Meanwhile, the Latvian and Ukraine pair bounced back in set two and levelled scores 6-2.
Though the Indo-Czech duo successfully pushed the match into a super tiebreaker in the final set, Mirza and Hradecka failed to produce firm resistance and lost the match to Ostapenko-Kichenok 7-10.
On Friday, Ostapenko defeated Simona Halep 2-6, 7-6, 6-0 in the singles semifinals.
She will face Russian player Veronika Kudermetova in the Dubai Tennis Championships 2022 finals on Saturday, February 19, 2022.
(Avya Mathur)