BREAKING NEWS

Shahar Peer loses to world # 1 in Dubai tournament

FEBRUARY 18, 2011 16:01

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates— Caroline Wozniacki ensured she will regain the No. 1 ranking from Kim Clijsters after beating Shahar Peer of Israel to reach the semifinals of the Dubai Championships on Friday.

Her win on Friday ended another strong run from Peer, who two years ago was barred from playing in Dubai because of nationality. The Israeli player is still given extra security and isolated from the other players in a guarded compound.

Last year, Peer reached the semifinals — beating Wozniacki on the way.

This time around, Wozniacki went up early 3-0 in the first set and was never seriously challenged mostly due to the erratic play of the Israeli who had 34 unforced errors — more than twice that of the Dane. Wozniacki went up again 4-0 in the second set, before Peer seemed to get her game going.

Peer reeled off two games to make it 4-2 and then closed the gap to 5-4 before Wozniacki completed the win with an overhead smash.

"I played two games good in the first set and only last three or four games in second set. Between that, I played pretty terrible," Peer said. "I don't think she had to do anything, just be there and put the balls in. I finished much better than I started."

Wozniacki said some of the credit for Peer's poor performance midmatch should go to her.

"I don't think anyone would have bad day if they were playing a bad opponent," she said. "You only have a bad day when the opponent makes you play poorly or the opponent makes you play the shots you don't want to play."

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