The Israeli, ranked No. 149 in the world, held her serve just twice against Begu (34), winning 17 of 43 points overall on her serve.
By ALLON SINAIJulia Glushko(photo credit: NIR KEIDAR/ISRAEL TENNIS ASSOCIATION)
Julia Glushko won just three games in her first ever WTA Tour quarterfinal on Friday, losing 6-1, 6-2 to Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in Rio de Janeiro.The Israeli, ranked No. 149 in the world, held her serve just twice against Begu (34), winning 17 of 43 points overall on her serve.Glushko, who will remain in Rio to take part in two small ITF events over the next two weeks, can at least draw encouragement from the fact that she is set to climb around 15 places in the next WTA rankings.Shahar Pe’er (113) advanced to the second round of the Qatar Open qualifiers on Saturday, with her opponent Elena Vesnina (71) retiring when trailing 6-4, 3-0.Meanwhile, Romania’s Simona Halep overcame Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the final of the Dubai Championships on Saturday to claim a 10th WTA singles title that will lift her back to third in the world rankings.Halep, who was promoted to top seed following Serena Williams’ late withdrawal, was relentless at the Aviation Club.She converted her only break point in the opener to win the first set and shrugged off four service breaks and two fluffed match points in the next set to secure a second title of 2015 following victory in Shenzhen in January.Rafael Nadal progressed to the semifinals of the men’s event in Rio early Saturday morning after beating Pablo Cuevas 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 in a match which ended at 3.21am local time.“No tennis tournament should end at this time,” said Nadal.“It’s tough for the players, but maybe worse for the fans.”Nadal had about 16 hours to rest before he faced Fabio Fognini on Saturday.Reuters contributed to this report.
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