Dubai: Only three of the top eight seeds remained in the draw as the qualifying rounds entered the final stage of the 19th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge on Sunday.
Leading the progression was top seed Quirine Lemoine of the Netherlands with an outright 6-1, 6-3 win over Slovakia’s Vivien Juhaszova and was later joined by eighth seed Viktoria Kuzmova who secured a hard-fought 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Belgium’s Elyne Boeykens.
Lesley Kerkhove, became the third seed to advance when the fifth seed from the Netherlands made her way past Tena Lukas from Croatia.
In the lower half of the draw, none of the seeds survived with No. 6 Eri Hozumi of Japan becoming the final casualty as she went down 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 against Ekaterine Gorgodze of Georgia.
The biggest winner of the day was former world number seven Patty Schynder as the Swiss took just 53 minutes to blow away Magdalena Frech of Poland 6-1, 6-2. The Swiss girl, who turns 38 on Wednesday, will next take on Agnes Bukta of Hungary.
“At this age any win in any form is most welcome. It was tough with the wind, but I am really happy that everything has been going my way and I have got past two qualifying rounds here,” Schynder said.
“The good thing at this moment is that I am enjoying this sort of lifestyle all over again. All I want to do is go out there and give it everything. And if I get into the main draw then that will be a huge, huge motivation for me,” she added.
Monday will be the start of the main draw of the competition, but it will also be the final round of qualifying with the four winners occupying their spot in the main competition.
RESULTS
Day Two of qualifying rounds of the 19th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge: Quirine Lemoine def. Vivien Juhaszova 6-1, 6-3; Agnes Bukta def. Amanda Carreras 6-4, 6-4; Valeria Savinykh def. Riko Sawayanagi 7-5, 6-1; Viktoria Kuzmova 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; Lesley Kerkhove def. Tena Lukas 6-2, 6-2; Ekaterine Gorgodze def. Eri Hozumi 7-5, 0-6, 6-4; Patty Schnyder def. Magdalena Frech 6-1, 6-2.
