Carole Monnet returns to Diana Shnaider during their quarter-final match of the 25th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The top two seeds wilted away on a day of upsets as the semi-final line-up fell in place at the 25th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge being held at the Habtoor Grand Resort, on Friday.

Carole Monnet picked up a memorable win in three sets against top seed Diana Shnaider, while former runner-up Viktoria Kuzmova took just 72 minutes to pack off second-seeded fancied Kristina Mladenovic.

Monnet, who had gone down in straight sets against Shnaider in their only meeting at the Gran Canaria earlier this year, used her guile to outfox the hard-hitting top seed and win 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours and 15 minutes of intense, high-quality tennis.

Kuzmova, on the other hand, was effortless in her 6-2, 6-3 win against Mladenovic, a former nine-time Grand Slam doubles champion.

“I liked the way I handled this match out there. After losing that first set, I changed my tactics and started being more consistent and conservative,” Monnet said after her quarter-final match.

“The key was to try and dictate to her. But every time I did so, my loss to her (at Gran Canaria] kept on coming to mind. Finally, I told myself that I had to make use of the experience gained through that loss and try and turn things around,” she smiled.

The 20-year-old’s next opponent will be fellow French girl Elsa Jacquemot, who dispatched of Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova 6-1, 6-4 in the last quarter-final of the day.

Elsa Jacquemot in action during her match against Rebecca Sramkova.

“A semi-final at a W100 event is really my best result this season. I know my level and I am aware of what all I can do out there on the court. But I would rather take things one match at a time,” Monnet related.

Monnet and Jacquemot have met thrice on the circuit and it has resulted with wins for Jacquemot on all three occasions.

“Tomorrow is another day, and I will try my best to win for the fourth time against Carole. She is a good player, but I feel I have the game to go all the way,” Jacquemot smiled.

Earlier, the lower part of the draw also had its two semi-finalists ready with third-seeded Magdalena Frech of Poland getting past Anastasia Zakharova 6-4, 6-1, after Kuzmova had tamed Mladenovic.

“The key today was to stay focused all the time. Luckily, I served well and managed to play a percentage game,” Frech related.

“It’s pre-season preparations for me and that makes it doubly tough. Now, I have Kuzmova in the semi-finals, and that’s not going to be easy either. She serves well and is always a tough player to beat. But the idea is to get to the final,” the 24-year-old admitted.

However, the girl from Kosice, Slovakia is also focused on a first-ever title here following her runner-up spot in 2018. “It’s my sixth year here and it is high time I take the trophy,” Kuzmova said.

“This is a grand tournament at the end of a season and I want to do my best and win here. Times have been tough for me, but I think I have the game to go all the way and win this trophy on Sunday,” she added.

Since last year, Kuzmova has been dealing with severe health issues including Pulmonary Edema [water retention in the lungs] followed by Deep Vein Thrombosis [DVT] in her left leg earlier this season. “The last two years have been tough, but fortunately, my game is coming back and I get this feeling that I can make it happen this time,” she related.

“But, it has to be one match at a time if I am going to win the trophy here,” Kuzmova added.

First held in 1998, and played at the Habtoor Grand Resort, this tournament is classified as an ITF Women’s Circuit competition. The competition started off as an $25,000 ITF event, before being raised to a $75,000 tournament between 1999 to 2015.

Since 2016, the annual fixture has been upgraded to a $100,000 plus hospitality event on the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour while attracting some of the top champions alongside a fast-improving breed of promising young stars.

Created by Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, Founding Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group, the annual tournament has managed to live up to its hype of encouraging the development of women’s tennis in the UAE and the region, while raising the profile of the sport across the Arab world.