{"id":61508,"date":"2024-02-18T10:38:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T10:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/osakas-qatar-title-bid-ended-by-pliskova-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-02-18T10:38:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T10:38:16","slug":"osakas-qatar-title-bid-ended-by-pliskova-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/osakas-qatar-title-bid-ended-by-pliskova-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Osaka’s Qatar title bid ended by Pliskova | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nDOHA:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Naomi Osaka’s hopes of clinching the Qatar Open ended in a straight-sets quarter-final loss to fellow former world number one Karolina Pliskova on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Four-time Grand Slam title winner Osaka, who is rebuilding her career after maternity leave, went down 7-6 (8\/6), 7-6 (7\/5) after\u00a0 saving three match points.<\/p>\n

It was the 26-year-old Japanese star’s second defeat to Pliskova this year after losing in three sets in her comeback tournament in Brisbane last month.<\/p>\n

Pliskova, ranked at 59, will face world number one Iga Swiatek for a place in Saturday’s final.<\/p>\n

The Czech’s win over Osaka<\/a> clinched in one hour and 43 minutes, was her ninth in the last 10 days, a run which included the Transylvania Open title on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Swiatek moved closer to a third successive Qatar title when she brushed aside Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-0 in 74 minutes in her quarter-final.<\/p>\n

Polish 22-year-old Swiatek is 12-1 at the Gulf tournament with her only defeat coming in the 2020 second round to Svetlana Kuznetsova.<\/p>\n

“I felt like I started a little bit playing too aggressively maybe, but then I found my rhythm and the proper way to play,” said Swiatek.<\/p>\n

“I kept it till the end of the match. I’m happy that I could analyse during the match and then take a lesson from that.”<\/p>\n

Former world number one Azarenka, the 2012 and 2013 champion in Doha, double-faulted in the ninth game to hand Swiatek the first break.<\/p>\n

The top seed served it out before racing through the second set without facing a break point.<\/p>\n

Swiatek ended the encounter with 17 winners to just five from Azarenka.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Elena Rybakina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova set-up a semi-final clash.<\/p>\n

Third seed and former Wimbledon champion Rybakina came from 4-2 down in the first set to defeat 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-2.<\/p>\n

Pavlyuchenkova secured her first 1000-level hardcourt semi-final in 14 years with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Danielle Collins of the United States.<\/p>\n

“I hope it will be a good match, we know each other well, both on and off the court,” said Rybakina, last weekend’s champion in Abu Dhabi, of her clash with Pavlyuchenkova.<\/p>\n

Pavlyuchenkova, ranked 32 in the world, needed one hour and 34 minutes to see off Collins, a former world number seven who had to qualify this week.<\/p>\n

The Russian’s only stutter came in the first set when she coughed up a 5-2 lead but she regrouped to take it 7-5 and went on to claim victory on her first match point.<\/p>\n

“I was injured for a long time, so I’m happy to be back and able to fight on all points, and victories give me confidence,” said Pavlyuchenkova in the post-match on-court interview.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been working a lot on the mental aspect and I feel like it’s paying off,” added the 32-year-old, a finalist at the French Open in 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOHA: Naomi Osaka’s hopes of clinching the Qatar Open ended in a straight-sets quarter-final loss to fellow former world number one Karolina Pliskova on Thursday. Four-time Grand Slam title winner Osaka, who is rebuilding her career after maternity leave, went down 7-6 (8\/6), 7-6 (7\/5) after\u00a0 saving three match points. It was the 26-year-old Japanese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/osakaa1708074025-0\/osakaa1708074025-0.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}