Maria Sakkari and Jelena Ostapenko crashed out of the WTA 1000 in Dubai at the Round of 16 stage after losing to Jasmine Paolini and Anna Kalinska respectively.

Olena OstapenkoPhoto: William WEST / AFP / Profimedia

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Maria Sakkari and Jelena Ostapenko were eliminated in the 1/8 finals of WTA Dubai

The 8th favorite of the competition from the Arab Emirates Sakkari (11 WTA) lost after an hour and 22 minutes of play to the Italian Paolini (26 WTA), the score 6-4, 6-2.

Jasmin will beat Elena Rybakina (4th seed) in the quarters after the 2022 Wimbledon champion got past Poland’s Magdalena Frech (53 WTA) 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4.

Ostapenko has already won 16 matches in 2024 but lost to Anna Kalinska (40 WTA) 6-4, 7-5 on Wednesday.

The athlete from Russia needed an hour and 33 minutes to win, and she is only the second athlete to beat Yelena this year (the Latvian lost the other three matches to Victoria Azarenka).

In the quarters, Anna will play the winner of the match between Coco Gauff (favorite 3) and Karolina Pliskova (36 WTA, former world leader).

Also on Wednesday, Marketa Vondrousova (7th seed) beat Russian Lyudmila Samsonova (15th WTA / 12th seed), score 6-2, 6-2.

Chech will fight for a place in the semi-finals Sorana Kirstea (22 WTA), who made an impressive comeback against Donna Vekic.

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships takes place from February 18 to 24 on hard, is part of the “WTA 1000” category and has a total prize pool of $3,211,715. Simona Halep won the tournament in 2015 and 2020, and the reigning champion is Barbora Krejcikova.

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