Karolina Pliskova will face world number one Ashleigh Barty in the quarter-finals of Stuttgart’s WTA clay-court tournament after seeing off Jelena Ostapenko in a three-set battle yesterday.
Pliskova, the sixth seed, recovered from losing the first set in a tie-break by firing down 21 aces, 10 of which came in the last set alone, for a 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 6-3 second-round win.
“I like spending time on this court,” joked Pliskova, the 2018 Stuttgart champion, after needing just under two and a half hours to claim victory.
“It was a really good match, because there was not many easy mistakes from both sides. It was a far better performance from me,” she added, having laboured in Wednesday’s victory over lucky loser Tamara Korpatsch.
Yesterday’s  result was almost identical to Pliskova’s win over Ostapenko in the 2018 quarter-finals in Stuttgart when the Czech went on to capture the title. Former French Open champion Ostapenko hurled her racquet in anger in the second set, while Pliskova broke one of hers as she regained control of the match. “It always helps me when I break a racquet,” the Czech said.
Pliskova, ranked ninth in the world, plays top seed Barty of Australia in the last eight Friday.
“She’s on a good run and has won a few tournaments, but I have nothing to lose,” added Pliskova. Barty, who won a pre-Australian Open tournament in Melbourne and the Miami Open earlier this month, breezed into the quarter-finals Wednesday by overpowering Laura Siegemund following a first-round bye.
She is using the Stuttgart event as part of her preparations for next month’s French Open, where she won her first Grand Slam title in 2019.
She sat out the 2020 tournament at Roland Garros because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Second-seed Simona Halep needed less than an hour to power into the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Marketa Vondrousova.
World No.3 Halep is still seeking her first trip to the final in Stuttgart, but her clay-court season debut proved to be a huge step towards achieving that goal as the Romanian dispatched 2019 Roland Garros finalist Vondrousova in just 56 minutes of play. 20th-ranked Vondrousova came into the encounter with an impressive 2-0 head-to-head lead over Halep, having notched three-set victories over the former World No.1 twice in 2019: on hardcourt in Indian Wells and on clay in Rome.
But Halep at last got on the board in their rivalry, dominating the Czech throughout their tussle. Halep never faced a break point in the affair as she moved into the elite eight in Stuttgart for the fourth time in her six main-draw showings.
Halep fired 22 winners to just 13 unforced errors in the clash, putting her one victory away from matching her best-ever showings in Stuttgart: semi-final results in 2015 and 2017. She will need to beat either No.8 seed Belinda Bencic or Ekaterina Alexandrova to reach the final four once again.
Vondrousova used her signature dropshots to pick up a handful of points during the first few games of the match, but after a hold by the Czech in the opening game, it was all Halep in the first set as the second seed swept to a one-set lead behind sturdy, angular hitting.
The pair advanced on serve through the majority of the second set, with Vondrousova tightening up her game and staying with the two-time Grand Slam champion through 4-3. But in that game, Vondrousova was let down by miscues as she fell behind 0-40, and after saving one break point with an ace, the Czech double faulted on the second.
Serving for the match at 5-3, Halep had a few minor issues of her own after a double fault and a backhand error put her behind 0-30, but the Romanian steeled herself to claim the next four points and sail into the quarter-finals.
The world number three Romanian admitted having been nervous after losing her two previous meetings with the 21-year-old Vondrousova in 2019.
“I had to wait a few days to play and I was a bit nervous as she won our previous matches, but I had a good plan,” said Halep. Today , the 29-year-old faces either Swiss Belinda Bencic or Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus faces Anett Kontaveit in the quarter-finals after her 6-4, 6-2 win over German qualifier Anna-Lena Friedsam. Estonia’s Kontaveit is looking to knock out another big name after shocking Sofia Kenin of the US, ranked fourth in the world, in the second round on Wednesday.