Third seed Elena Rybakina took time to get going but secured a 6-4 6-2 victory over Leylah Fernandez to reach the semi-finals of the Qatar Open and stay on track for her third title of the season.
Top seed and defending champion Iga Swiatek also shook off a wobbly start in windy conditions before booking her place in the last four with a routine 6-4 6-0 win over two-times Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka.
But it was the end of the road for Japan’s four-times Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who went down fighting 7-6(6) 7-6(5) against fellow former world number one Karolina Pliskova in a rematch of their Brisbane meeting last month.
Rybakina, who has lifted the Brisbane and Abu Dhabi trophies this year, dropped serve twice at the start of the clash but the 24-year-old stemmed the flow of errors from her racket and won five games in a row from 4-1 down to claim the opening set.
