Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in shock quarter-final exit

21 February 2014 09:40

Last month’s Australian Open-winning world No.1 double act Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci fell to a shock quarter-final defeat in the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open at Dubai Tennis Stadium on Thursday.

The Italian duo lost 6-4, 6-1 to Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears on court one. Kops-Jones and Spears now progress to a semi-final clash against the winners of Thursday’s late night duel between Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Poland’s Alicja Rosolska and Italy’s Flavia Pennetta and the USA’s Sam Stosur.

Elsewhere, Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Safarova beat the USA’s Lisa Raymond and China’s Zhang Shuai 6-3, 7-5 to book themselves into the semi-finals. They will play Russia’s Alla Kudryavtseva and Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova, who overcame Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-4 in Thursday’s other quarter-final.

Hlavackova and Safarova raised eyebrows on Tuesday with their cagey 7-6(5), 5-7, 11-9 first round win over Indian crowd puller and defending doubles champion Sania Mirza, who alongside three-time Dubai doubles champion Cara Black of Zimbabwe was considered a pre-tournament favourite.

All four seeded pairs have now been knocked out.

Source: DSG