(Tennis news) Jelena Ostapenko has had an arduous draw at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Ostapenko lost the first set for the third time in a row as she has one straight set victory in the last 4 matches, the Latvian has spent almost 8 hours on her way to the final.

In the semifinal, Ostapenko was against Simona Halep, an opponent who she has faced twice. Both their meetings were in 2017, the first one was in the Roland Garros final where Ostapenko won the title and next in Beijing where Halep won to reach the final. This time the 24 year old gathered extra strength for hard hitting winners as she hit 36 winners in the match whereas Halep could only manage a handful.

In the first set, it was Ostapenko going for winners straight away as the former world number could not get her racquet to most of them. The unforced errors were more in number for the world number 21 as she lost the first set. In the second set, the winners increased in intensity from Ostapenko as Halep’s defence was in no state to counter punch and in the last 34 points it was the younger player who took 27 of them. In the deciding set, the 2020 champion here simply had to retreat from the court as the groundstrokes were unplayable and for the first time the 2017 Roland Garros champion bageled the two time Grand Slam winner. Ostapenko defeated Halep 2-6, 7-6(7-0), 6-0.

"I knew I had to play aggressively no matter what the score was," Ostapenko said afterwards. "She really doesn't like to play against players who play aggressive and take time away from her.

Veronika Kudermetova will feel energised when she plays in the final against Ostapenko as she received a walkover from Marketa Vondrousova in the other semifinal. Kudermetova has spent 6 hours on court so far, she defeated Victoria Azarenka and Garbine Muguruza in the first two matches. The Russian entered the semifinal by beating Jil Teichmann and will be playing Ostapenko for the first time.

"The injury started a few days ago and I've played so many matches here which has aggravated it," Vondrousova said in a statement. "I'm really sad to leave the tournament this way but I've still enjoyed a great week and am proud of how I've played. I will travel to Doha and see how the injury is. I've played six amazing matches this week having come through qualifying and proud of my performances so it's unfortunate this has happened. Health is the priority for me."

Also read: Jelena Ostapenko bounces back to beat Petra Kvitova at Dubai