After disappointing early exits in the 2 previous tournaments, Patty overcame Australian Alicia Molik in 3 sets 4-6 6-2 6-4 to reach the quarters of Dubai Open.

In the first set Patty made lots of unnecessary errors including hitting 3 consecutive double faults at one point. The Australian capitalized Patty’s mistakes and lead the set 5-2, Patty made a mini come back attempt winning the next 2 games, but Alicia broke back in the last game and took the first set 6-4

Patty started slow in the second set..a clearly frustrated Patty even had to broke a racquet to calm herself down. That incident proved to be the tuning point, Patty won the next 4 games consecutively to win the set 6-2

In the third set Patty got an early break in the 3rd set which was enough to serve for the match at 5-4. Patty struggled to close out the match at 5-4 and had to serve 5 match points to win the match.

“I was really pleased the way I just kept fighting for every point because it was not easy,” said Hantuchova. “I wasn’t playing my best, especially in the first set, but I just tried to turn it around and find my rhythm on the shots. The one thing that got me through was my belief.

“We were both playing great at some stages and then playing horrible, but I was expecting it was going to be like that because Maria also goes for her shots and we both like to hit a lot of winners.”

In the quarters to be played tomorrow, Patty will play Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia; Patty has played Svetlana 6 times before and trials the series 2-4.  Last time they played was on clay in 2006 AMELIA ISLAND where Patty lost to Sevtlana.