Qualifier Bellis stuns reigning champion Pliskova in Doha

Doha: American qualifier CiCi Bellis claimed the biggest win of her career after taking down defending champion Karolina Pliskova in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals at the Qatar Total Open.
Bellis read the Czech’s booming serve perfectly, breaking her five times en route to the 7-6(4), 6-3 victory in an hour and 37 minutes. Even more impressive, her victory over World No.5 Pliskova is Bellis’ first Top 5 win of her career.
“This was huge for me,” 18-year-old Bellis said in her on-court interview. “I think I played a really good match and just tried to track down as many balls as I could. Obviously, I’ve watched her play for many years and she’s one of my idols for sure. I’m just really happy to was able to get through it.”
It was their second meeting of the season after Brisbane, where Pliskova won comfortably in straight sets dropping just two games.
“When I played her in Brisbane, she killed me, and I was super nervous before that match,” Bellis recalled. “It was the start of the year. It was my second match of the year and she was playing really well there.
“I knew I had to be super on top of it from the first point today, and that’s what my team and I discussed, from the first point I had to be 100 percent rather than kind of get into the match and take a few games. So I think that was a big part of it.”
The story was completely different story today, with qualifier Bellis coming into the match-up after dealing upsets to Daria Kasatkina (who retired in the second set with a neck injury) and No.12 seed Madison Keys.  
Pliskova, who came to Doha after Fed Cup and is recovering from an illness, spoke of feeling low energy levels coming into the match. It showed against the 18-year-old, and she couldn’t seem to find her rhythm againsts Bellis’ relentless attacking.
Bellis kept Pliskova under pressure from the start of the match, coming away with the edge after three straight breaks of serve. The momentum swung between the two as they traded five more breaks to stay level and bring up a tiebreaker. Despite Pliskova finding some of her biggest serves of the set in the tiebreak, Bellis had the answers to force error after error and edge through the opening set.
While the first set featured a dizzying eight breaks of serve, the second was decided by just one. Bellis converted on her fifth break chance of game six to grab a 4-2 lead and held onto it for the rest of the match, serving out the biggest victory of her career after an hour and 38 minutes.
Bellis stayed aggressive throughout the match, hitting 17 winners and 26 unforced errors across two sets. Pliskova struck 30 winners - almost double the amount of her young opponent - but was undone by her 53 unforced errors and eight double faults.
Earlier, Simona Halep shrugged off injury concerns to record a straight sets victory over Anastasija Sevastova yesterday to progress to the Qatar Open quarter-finals.
The world number two won 6-4, 6-3, hit 29 winners and needed four match points before overcoming her Latvian opponent, who is ranked 15th in the world. Coming into the match, Halep admitted she had lingering concerns about an ankle injury which had kept her out of action since her defeat to Caroline Wozniacki in the Australian Open final last month.
But she seemed relatively untroubled breaking her opponent’s serve late in each set to advance to the last eight.
She added that her ankle was painful but had not got worse during the match.
“Day-by-day I will see how it is and then I will decide if something is getting worse.”
By reaching the quarter-finals, Halep has the chance of reclaiming the world’s top ranking from Wozniacki if she goes one round further than the Dane. But the Romanian said she was not concerned about rankings.
Halep will play 18-year-old Bellis in the last eight.