Caroline Wozniacki to meet Petra Kvitova in Qatar Open semifinals

Doha: Caroline Wozniacki was not always in control of the situation. Far from it, at times she was hanging in there with all her willpower as Angelique Kerber threatened to hit her out of the reckoning with that sweet swinging left hand of hers.

And in the end, it was Wozniacki’s fighting qualities that saw her through to the semifinal and ensured that she maintained her top ranking with a 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-3 victory against her good friend at the Qatar Total Open on Friday.

Wozniacki will take on Petra Kvitova in the semifinal on Saturday after the Czech player’s opponent Julia Goerges retired midway through their match. Kvitova was leading 6-1, 2-1 when the German ninth seed decided against continuing.

But the match of the evening was definitely between the former world No.1 Kerber and the current incumbent Wozniacki.

And it was a cracker, with both women training their guns at each other right from the start.

Kerber broke Wozniacki’s serve in the third game of the first set and was leading 5-3 before the Dane plotted her comeback.

She broke Kerber who was serving for the set, then held her serve, and her nerve in the tiebreak to win it 7-4.

“I feel like I had a lot of chances in the first set to win a lot of the games that I ended up losing and then she had a chance to serve it out and win the set, and I somehow came back. So I feel like playing the tiebreaker to decide the set I thought was fair after that. And I think I played very aggressive and played well in that tiebreaker, Wozniacki summed up the first set.

“But in the second set it was all Kerber and the former Australian Open and US Open winner stormed through the set, winning it 6-1.

Kerber, it seemed, was taking her momentum into the third set when she broke Wozniacki in the very first game, but the 27-year-old came back immediately to level the score 1-1.

Wozniacki broke Kerber again in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead and served out to win in two hours and 20 minutes.

(In the second set) she played very well, said Wozniacki. “I made some unforced errors going for a little too much but she played really well. And third set, again, she had a chance in the beginning to go up 2-0, and I managed to just stay tough, and it could have gone either way really.”

Wozniacki, who has opted out of Dubai event starting next week, said she was not that worried about her No.1 ranking.

“It feels good, but honestly I'm just happy to have won today,” said Wozniacki. “I'm more interested in that. And then whatever happens, happens.

“I'm not playing Dubai next week. So if I was really that worried, I would have played next week. But I'd rather take some time off and rest and make sure my body is fine and then hopefully I can do even better here. I'm going to give myself an opportunity tomorrow. And then just get ready for Indian Wells/Miami.”