DUBAI // This year has been a rollercoaster ride for the winner of the WTA’s Most Improved Player award in 2013.
Starting the season with a first-round loss to promising American teenager Madison Keys in Sydney, Simona Halep bounced back to reach the last eight at the Australian Open before falling to eventual finalist Dominika Cibulkova.
A week later, she suffered another first-round defeat, but she then cruised to her biggest success yet in Doha, winning the title and defeating three top-10 players along the way.
The first-round jinx, however, has struck again. The world No 9 limped out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday with an inflamed Achilles tendon, unable to complete her first-round match against France’s Alize Cornet.
“I was very tired during the match and I felt that I cannot continue,” said Halep, who decided to stop at 6-1, 1-1. She took her first medical time-out when trailing 4-1 and the second at the end of the set.
“She [Cornet] played well and it isn’t easy to continue the match when you don’t feel 100 per cent,” Halep said.
“You cannot run, you cannot stop at the balls. After one set, I realised that it is dangerous to continue. So I wanted to stop, because she’s a great player and you have to run a lot to beat her.”
Halep, however, is not very disappointed about returning home earlier than planned. She is still glowing from her triumph last week.
“It was amazing for me,” she said. “Yeah, I think I played my best tennis in Doha.”
The youngest player in the top 10 at age 22, Halep is hoping to build on that success, “stay close to the top 10”, and “play a semi-finals at one grand slam”. The quarter-final appearance at Melbourne this year is her best performance in 18 visits to grand slams, but given her recent success, improving on that should not be a problem.
Ranked No 58 in the world when she arrived at Nurnberg last June, without a WTA Tour title to her name, Halep made an astonishing rise up the rankings, winning six tournaments and compiling a 43-8 record in her final 14 WTA main draws of the year.
She added a seventh trophy to her cabinet on Sunday, despite playing her last three matches with the Achilles problem. Since the recovery will keep her off the court for a few days, Halep is looking forward to spending time with her family and friends.
“I will go home maybe tomorrow, and I will celebrate my tournament [Doha win] with my family and friends,” she said. “So I will take off for a few days.”
Halep is not the first Doha champion to be forced out of the Dubai tournament due to injury. Last year, both the champ, Victoria Azarenka, and the losing finalist, Serena Williams, pulled out hours before their matches with a foot and back injury respectively.
Serena Williams returned to action for the first time since last month’s Australian Open and initially took a while to find her feet.
Then, she performed like the current women’s world No 1 to dispatch Ekaterina Makarova 7-6, 6-0 and progress to the third round at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night.
Having been keep off the competitive court by a niggling back injury, Williams showed plenty of signs of rust – she had played only four matches in Melbourne – in struggling to a tie-break before closing out the first set in 66 minutes.
In fact, Williams had been broken by her opponent, ranked 24th in the world, in the seventh game to go 4-3 down, and by the time she had leaked another game, she was issued a warning for slamming her racquet in frustration.
However, Williams regrouped to force the tie-break and wasted two set points en route to triumphing 10-8. From there, the American, a 17-time Grand Slam champions, found her mojo, racing through the second set in only 30 minutes.
“I was really excited to get through the first set, as it was really tough,” Williams said. “I just kept fighting, tried to do the best I could and I was just glad to win that tie-break.
“It would mean a lot [to win Dubai]. I’ve never won here but I’m just glad to get through to the next round, against such a tough opponent.”
Former world No 1 and Dubai 2011 champion Caroline Wozniacki battled back from losing the opening set to overcome 2013 Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki, winning 2-6 6-3 6-3. Another former world No 1 and No 5 seed, Jelena Jankovic, had to fight hard to get past qualifier Maryna Zanevska, winning 6-4 6-3.
“I worked really hard. It was not easy for my first match here,” said Jankovic. “I just came from Doha like one day ago, so it’s completely different. Playing there during the night it’s slower, and here it’s faster and the balls fly. It was quite windy out there, and I felt kind of like I couldn’t play my game totally, you know, play the lines.”
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