The top two seeded players at the Qatar Open were eliminated in the quarterfinals as Victoria Azarenka played through pain to beat Elina Svitolina and Jessica Pegula defeated Karolina Pliskova.
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The ever-doughty Azarenka held off a late comeback from top-seeded Svitolina - also her doubles partner this week - to seal a 6-2 6-4 win on her third match point on Thursday.
The Belarusian Azarenka had to manage an apparent lower back problem with stretches and needed help from a physiotherapist.
"In the warm-up, I just felt a very sharp pain and I was very worried," she said.
"I tried my best. I really tried to just focus on what I could do and not think about anything else."
Azarenka will next play Garbine Muguruza or Maria Sakkari in the semi-finals.
Pegula continued her blistering start to 2021 by beating second-seeded Pliskova 6-3 6-1, breaking the big-hitting Czech player's serve five times.
That took Pegula to a 12-3 record this year, including qualifying matches, in a run which has already lifted the US player into the top 50 for the first time after reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals.
Her reward for beating Pliskova is a semi-final against fourth-seeded Petra Kvitova, who ousted Anett Kontaveit 6-3 3-6 6-2 in a match with 16 breaks of serve. "It was a kind of a rollercoaster," Kvitova said.
Australian Associated Press
