Dominiki Cibulkova comes through tiring stretch to book final place

30 September 2016 02:23

Dominika Cibulkova is getting a taste for the court at the Wuhan Open as she booked her place in the final.

The Slovakian, seeded eighth, has spent over six hours in action over the last two days having had to play three games, the last of which saw her beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6 6-3 6-4 in the semi-final.

It was some achievement, heightened by the fact she had to come from a set down, as she did not get off court until gone 1am on Thursday after a lengthy quarter-final win over Barbora Strycova.

Rain had meant that her third-round tie with Karolina Pliskova was also played on Thursday, but she showed no signs of exhaustion as she downed the powerful Russian to enhance her chances of making the WTA Finals in Singapore for the first time.

She said: "I was just trying to focus on tennis and what to do because if I thought about yesterday, about today, it would be really, really tough.

"We finished around 1:20am yesterday. I had an ice bath here, then we went to the hotel and I had treatment with my physio. It took like maybe one, one and a half hours. I couldn't fall asleep and I wanted to eat. It was very, very tiring. After such a day, it's not easy to fall asleep.

"I can't even describe how happy I am that I was able to play this tennis today. You know, I'm just playing good tennis, and that's what keeps me going."

She will meet Petra Kvitova in the final after the Czech handed down a severe beating to Simona Halep - the highest-ranked player left in the tournament.

Kvitova, the 2014 champion in Wuhan, produced some brutal hitting to earn a 6-1 6-2 win in a little over an hour.

Meanwhile, Kristyna Pliskova is on course for her first WTA Tour title after booking her place in the Tashkent Open final in Uzbekistan.

The twin sister of world number six Karolina has yet to win on tour, but got the better of Kateryna Kozlova 7-6 (7/2) 6-0 in the semi-final.

However, she will have to get past defending champion Nao Hibino, who edged out Denisa Allertova 6-2 6-3.

Source: PA