No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova ended No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title defense 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) in a quarterfinal thriller, holding off a late charge from 5-3 down in the third set by the 18-year-old to convert her fourth match point after 2 hours and 38 minutes. Anisimova had trailed by a set and 2-0 before mounting a comeback of her own.<\/p>\n
Anisimova will face No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula in an all-American semifinal, a reprise of last month’s Australian Open quarterfinal tilt. Pegula edged No. 12 seed and last year’s runner-up Clara Tauson 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to reach her seventh consecutive semifinal on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, a streak that stretches back to last year’s US Open.<\/p>\n
Dubai:\u00a0Scores\u00a0<\/a>| \u00a0Draws<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Order of play<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n “I was almost in tears there at the end,” Anisimova said in her on-court interview. She wasn’t the only one; after Andreeva’s final backhand went long, the 18-year-old bent double with the emotion.<\/p>\n “It was such a tough battle, and I thought we played incredible tennis,” Anisimova continued. “Seeing Mirra down like that, it’s understandable. We both fought so hard today, and it made me emotional seeing her like that. She was playing so well, she’s the defending champion and I feel like we both won on the court today. These type of matches, it’s always tough that someone has to lose at the end of the day.”<\/p>\n In her press conference, Anisimova expanded on her sympathy for Andreeva.<\/p>\n “It’s not easy to see someone that gives their all and then to react like that,” she said. “It made me really sad for her. In my mind, I was just thinking if she keeps playing like this, there’s a title around the corner for her. Obviously she’s going to have a great year. She seems to be doing all the right things.”<\/p>\n Anisimova’s victory was her first Top 10 win of 2026, and marks the first time she has reached a semifinal since the 2025 WTA Finals Riyadh. It was also the second time she has downed Andreeva in a nailbiter in as many meetings. Last year, she ended Andreeva’s 13-match winning streak 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-3 in the Miami third round.<\/p>\n Pegula and Anisimova will both be bidding to reach the Dubai final for the first time. Pegula has dominated their head-to-head so far with a perfect 4-0 record, including a 6-2, 7-6(1) win in Melbourne last month.<\/p>\n Setting the stage for a third-set tug-of-war:<\/strong> As Andreeva advanced to a 6-2, 2-0 lead, the teenager’s tactics and execution were both spot on. She was both out-manoeuvring the two-time major finalist from the baseline and out-serving her: in the first set, Andreeva fired four aces to Anisimova’s zero, while the latter coughed up 20 unforced errors.<\/p>\n But with two points to go up a 3-0 double break, Andreeva threw in a pair of her own errors — and a rejuvenated Anisimova cleaned up her accuracy to reel off five straight games and lead 5-2. Andreeva managed to rediscover her first-set form to level at 5-5, but lapsed into error again in the final game of the set.<\/p>\n The decider saw both players raise their levels at the same time. Andreeva, already up a break, won one of the best points of the match in the second game, anticipating an Anisimova putaway and stealing the rally with a lob-drop shot combination.<\/p>\n Anisimova expands her game to pull ahead: <\/strong>But getting tied up in that exchange seemed to only spur Anisimova on. She found her best sequence of no-holds-barred power hitting in response, and took five of the next seven games to lead 5-3. In this passage of play, Anisimova’s willingness to come forwards proved crucial — and she also pulled off a hot shot of her own, a one-handed backhand flick to finish a cat-and-mouse placement battle in the sixth game.<\/p>\n “I feel I’m always learning when you play matches like that,” Anisimova said in her on-court interview. “I’m expanding my game, and that’s something I feel likeI really want to get better at.”<\/p>\n Most impressively, Anisimova’s adjustments were made on the fly. Net play had not been part of her advance strategy.<\/p>\n “Before the match that wasn’t really something in my mind,” she said. “But as the match went on, she gets to every single ball. So I felt like I was trying different things, like drop shots, coming into the net, trying to use the court as much as I can because otherwise I don’t think that the point would finish if I just kept hitting the ball.<\/p>\n “It’s something I’ve also tried to get better at and improve in. I feel like I can play well at the net if I commit to it … We were just going back to back with it. We were both trying to play really aggressive. I feel like the game style shifted a lot of times throughout the match.”<\/p>\n Andreeva musters a last stand … but Anisimova powers to victory: <\/strong>With her back to the wall, Andreeva refused to let go of her crown. With Anisimova serving at 5-3, Andreeva saved a match point by drawing the error with a short forehand slice. At 5-5, she nailed a pair of down-the-line winners off each wing to win a third straight game.<\/p>\n “When it was 5-5 I was like, damn, I had a match point at 5-3,” Anisimova recalled in her press conference. “How did you blow that? I was like, maybe I might lose the match at this point, too.<\/p>\n “It was just a flying thought in my mind. It didn’t really stick long. I feel like we were both playing so well, so of course that’s going to happen. I think Coco [Gauff] also saved a few match points last night. I ended up coming to watch that match in the end. I feel like the tennis here has been sort of a rollercoaster. That’s also what makes this sport so enjoyable to watch. Yeah, the game can be crazy.”<\/p>\n Embracing the wild shifts made possible by tennis’s scoring system, Anisimova made one last charge — and victory ultimately came down to her ability to tee off on the Andreeva second serve. At 6-5, 30-30, Anisimova avoided facing a match point by hammering a forehand return down the line. Consecutive return winners also gave her the momentum early in the ensuing tiebreak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova ended No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title defense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,661,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-775630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}