Opening wins for Serena & Venus Williams in stunning Dubai line-up

As on so many occasions before, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships have drawn one of the most impressive fields outside the Grand Slams and top-tier Premier/Masters tournaments.

For while the draws may be small, they are perfectly formed in an event that has been voted the ATP’s Players’ Favourite 500 in nine eight of the last 10 years. For few locations—and the skyline of Dubai draws a spectacular line between the blue Persian Gulf and golden Arabian desert—marry luxury, sun and the perfect preparation for the hot hard courts of Indian Wells as perfectly as Dubai.

So strong is the women’s draw of 28 that the likes of world No19 Eugenie Bouchard and No22 Flavia Pennetta had to play qualifying rounds—and the young Canadian did not make the cut.

Indeed no fewer than four former world No1s feature among an initial line-up that also includes six of the world’s top 10 players: No7 Jelena Jankovic, No12 Ana Ivanovic, the 2009 and 2010 Dubai champion Venus Williams, and 2011 Dubai champion Caroline Wozniacki.

Other top-ranked players vying for a portion of one of the biggest purses on the tennis tour—a cool $2 million—are defending champion and world No6 Petra Kvitova, 2012 champion and world No3 Agnieszka Radwanska, along with Nos 8 to 10, Angelique Kerber, Simona Halep and Sara Errani.

Then at the last minute, as if to add some icing to this already-rich cake, world No1 Serena Williams took a late wild card into the singles draw and, not content with that, joined forces with sister Venus in the doubles draw, too.

With 58 singles titles to her name, Williams has nevertheless still to add the Dubai Duty Free to her portfolio, and this will be her fourth attempt to lift the trophy.

She first played in Dubai in 2005 and was forced to retire in the semi-finals against Jankovic due to injury. Her next appearance was in 2009 when she again reached the semi-finals before losing a nail-biter to sister Venus, conceding the match in a third set tiebreak. Serena returned again last year, but injury forced her to withdraw before she could take to the court.

Her quest to add the Dubai title to her ever-growing list of accomplishments comes after she began 2014 by beating Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka to retain her Brisbane title, before making a surprise fourth-round exit to Ivanovic in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Williams has already made a winning start against Ekaterina Makarova, 7-6, 6-0, to reach the quarter-finals after saving two set points in the first set:
“Today was really difficult for me. I was really telling myself to stay positive, because I was making a lot of errors that I normally don’t make, and my serve just wasn’t popping the way it normally is. I was just really trying to get in the rhythm.”

She will next play either Jankovic or Lucie Safarova, who beat Sloane Stephens.

Out of contention in this half, however, is last week’s Doha champion Halep, who was forced to retire with a right Achilles injury, handing a first round victory to Alize Cornet.

“I have an inflammation at my Achilles. So when I jump with my serve and when I stop at the rallies, I feel the pain… After one set I realised that it is dangerous to continue.”

In the bottom half of the draw, the second seed Radwanska made a surprise exit to qualifier Pennetta, who had already beaten Kaia Kanepi. The other seed in that quarter, Doha finalist Kerber, also lost in the opening round to Ivanovic. But that earned Ivanovic a replay of her final in Auckland last month against Venus Williams. On that occasion, the Serb won a very close three-setter, but this time, Williams took less than an hour to turn the tables in a dominating 6-2, 6-1 victory.

Ivanovic conceded: “She’s such a tough competitor, and she retrieves lots of balls. You just have to win points over and over again.

Venus Williams will next meet Pennetta for a place in the semis where the most likely opponent will be Wozniacki, who survived a strong assault from the 2013 Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

As well as her run to the title in 2011, Wozniacki has twice been a Dubai semi-finalist. In 2012, she suffered an unexpected defeat at the hands of Julia Goerges, and in 2013 she fell to eventual champion Kvitova. And she does still have last year’s runner-up, Errani, left in her quarter.

The Williams sisters join forces later today in a rare doubles foray outside the Grand Slams. Last year, they only played the Australian and US Opens along with the big season-closing Premier in Beijing, and they have not won a title together since London in 2012, when they won both Wimbledon and Olympic gold.

To get past the first round, though, the Williams have to beat the Australian Open runners-up, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, while the draw is topped by the outstanding women’s duo of Errani and Roberta Vinci, who last month retained their title at the Australian Open.

In short, there is quality wherever you look and, not for the first time, Serena and Venus, 32 and 33 years old respectively, are at the heart of the action.