It’s quarter-finals day in Antwerp, but the next set of tournaments is already on the horizon. The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships will be the main focus of next week and the qualifying tournament begins tomorrow with the likes of Julia Goerges, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Ana Konjuh, Tereza Smitkova, Jarmila Gajdosova and Elena Vesnina all in action. I’m pretty sure Dubai is a Sunday start… back to Antwerp for the first part of quarter-final previews. I’m still stumped as to who is going to win this tournament.
1. Andrea Petkovic v Dominika Cibulkova
Andrea Petkovic has had an eventful few days. After winning through two extra time finishes in Fed Cup action (d. Sam Stosur, 6-4 3-6 12-10 and d. Jarmila Gajdosova, 6-3 3-6 8-6), Petkovic endured another brutal match in the first round of Antwerp as she saved EIGHT match points to defeat Alison Van Uytvanck, 6-7(7) 7-6(5) 6-2 in three hours and 19 minutes. It was a heartbreaking loss for Van Uytvanck, who didn’t do a great deal wrong on the match points. In the second set tiebreak, Van Uytanck’s biggest mistake came at 5-5 with a botched volley. Petkovic wrapped up the set on a tremendous rally, arrowing a winner away. The quality wavered throughout but this was a really entertaining late night match. Petkovic’s fighting spirit has been firmly on show in her last couple of matches and it’s such a great asset to her game.
Petkovic will be thankful to be in the last of the quarter-finals on Friday where she will meet Dominika Cibulkova. The Slovak dropped a set to Indy De Vroome on Thursday before pulling away in the decider, 6-3 3-6 6-2. Her first match of the week against Kateryna Bondarenko was a much more convincing performance. Petkovic will take confidence from the head-to-head having won their last three matches on tour. The most recent of those came at the Tournament of Champions event in Sofia last year where Petkovic won, 7-5 6-3. Cibulkova wasn’t all that impressive today but in this match-up, i’d fancy her to have the edge against Petko… it’s one of those ones where i’m not quite sure why, but this is what i’m going for!
Prediction: Cibulkova d. Petkovic in 3 sets
2. Lucie Safarova v Karolina Pliskova
Yayyy! Lucie Safarova won her first WTA singles match of the year with a 6-4 6-1 victory over Kristina Mladenovic. On paper, this looked like a really tricky match. Mladenovic had won their previous encounter in DC last year and would have been on a high after helping France qualify for the semi-finals of the Fed Cup last weekend. Safarova didn’t face any break points in the 72 minute contest as she motored through the second set, losing just two points on her serve and breaking serve three times. An intriguing all-Czech quarter-final with Karolina Pliskova awaits in the first of the quarter-finals on Friday (not before 1pm in the UK).
Pliskova has done well to win two matches in Antwerp having flown from Fed Cup duty in Canada on Monday. Pliskova has beaten Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (6-4 7-6) and Annika Beck (6-3 6-3). Apart from a loss to Alla Kudryavtseva in Brisbane, Pliskova has done a good job this year beating players ranked below her. She’s also proven herself to be a tough cookie on more than one occasion in playing back-to-back events and winning matches. In their only previous match-up, Safarova beat Pliskova on clay in Prague nearly three years ago. Safarova will be the fresher of the pair and when there’s so little to call between the pair, this could be the difference.
Prediction: Safarova d. Ka.Pliskova in 2 tight sets
Moo's Tennis Blog 
I’m standing by Cibulkova and Pliskova to make it through. I think the latter will be excited for another chance at pulling an upset.
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Hi Andrew, I agreed with your pick. I think Domi and Pliskova will go through. I think Pliskova will be in final. Domi can’t beat her. I am excited to see if Barthel can reach the final with this kind of brutal display. Anyway, I am glad my money on Barthel vs Bouchard was really so good 🙂
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Well done Karolina Pliskova. Beforehand, and all the way through the first set, I was convinced Safarova was going to win. But, even though her serve wasn’t really firing, Pliskova did enough to hang in there and managed to nick the tiebreak. Safarova’s quality dipped when she needed it most, missing a couple of makable and important balls in the tiebreak and then a fair few more in the second set. Pliskova’s serve really started working for her and she didn’t give Lucie much of a look in once she broke her, but when she did have a sniff she invariably missed.
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Not to be too hard on Lucie, she did play some great tennis, especially in the first set, and hit a lot of sweet winners, but it all felt a little familiar, her level dropping when it gets to crunch time.
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I think that at the end of the day, Pliskova has a much stronger game. I just hope she doesn’t get complacent in the next round, because this could be her second final at Premier level and potentially her first title.
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