Amelie Mauresmo struggled to a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 victory over eighth-seeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova to reach the semi-finals of the Dubai Open on Thursday, while Jelena Jankovic ended Martina Hingis's hopes with a 7-6, 6-2 win.
It took the number two seed from France two hours 21 minutes to overcome Hantuchova, despite dominating the opening set and building a 5-1 lead with her more aggressive play.
Hantuchova asserted herself more in the second set, attacking more from the net and hitting some fine groundstrokes from all parts of the court.
Although she twice broke Mauresmo's serve in the third set, she immediately surrendered her own. In the end she paid the price, conceding her serve again in the final game.
"I really felt I was in control of the match in the first set, and then I fell asleep," Mauresmo told reporters. "I wasn't doing anything in the second set. Then I was able to, little bit by little bit in the third set, get my rhythm going a little bit better."
Unfortunate scheduling saw Hingis finish a draining second-round match at 1.30am and then return to court the next afternoon to face fifth-seeded Serb Jankovic.
Although she led 4-2 in the first set, Hingis was unable to maintain her lead, and once she lost the tiebreak it was unlikely she would be able to turn the match around.
"The first set was key, pretty much," said Hingis. "In the tiebreaker she just played some better shots and was more aggressive. Maybe if I had won that you kind of go with the momentum. After that I did have chances but didn't take them."
Hingis was critical of the scheduling, and supported an idea raised after similar late-night problems during the Australian Open that matches should be suspended overnight if they were not completed by a reasonable time.
"I don't think it's very fair to the players," she said. "Maybe there is a chance in the future they'll work on this. We have this with the darkness at the French Open and other tournaments which don't have lights."
Third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia was due to face sixth-seeded Patty Schnyder, and top seed Justine Henin was scheduled to take on Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the other quarter-finals.
