The Middle Eastern swing of both Dubai and Doha have been a regular fixture on the WTA calendar for quite a number of years now, serving as preparation for the month of Indian Wells and Miami, the two largest non-major events. This year’s swing, however, has been wracked with withdrawals and poor results from the top 10, with Serena Williams and Eugenie Bouchard both being injured and Maria Sharapova opting not to participate this year. Although Simona Halep, ranked No. 3, won Dubai, the most impressive performances came from other players outside the top 10 who have shown their capacity to challenge their higher-ranked opponents ahead of the larger events later in the year.

Two of the most impressive players this fortnight have been the Czech duo of Karolina Pliskova and Lucie Safarova. Both players have managed to play consistent yet aggressive tennis, with Pliskova reaching the final of Dubai and Safarova winning Doha as well as reaching the quarterfinals of Dubai. Their success has been largely owing to recent improvements in their games, with Safarova gaining mental strength and Pliskova enhancing her footwork as well as competing with a more aggressive mindset.

On her way to the Dubai final, Pliskova managed to defeat both Ana Ivanovic and Safarova. Her success against both players is due to her unwavering depth of shot, allowing her to be constantly aggressive. While Pliskova herself does not look particularly comfortable when moving around the court, she does have a natural ability to force her opponent onto the run by utilizing a good mix of angles in addition to having consistent groundstrokes off both her forehand and backhand. However, what ultimately let her down in the Dubai final against Halep was her inability to come up with a response to Halep’s impressive footwork, which negated Pliskova’s style of play, since the Romanian was able to turn defense into offense. Pliskova’s lack of effective footwork also meant that often she wasn’t set up for shots when she was forced onto the move, allowing Halep to win the final 6-4 7-6(4). With this result, Pliskova has also moved up from No. 18 to No. 15 in the WTA rankings after the week of Doha.

This fortnight was also an extremely successful week for Lucie Safarova, who not only won her biggest title but also rose to a career-high ranking of No. 11, just a few match wins short of breaking into the top 10. Although she did lose to Pliskova in the quarterfinals of Dubai, Safarova has been posting consistent results over the past few weeks. This has benefited her enormously by boosting her confidence after a lackluster performance in Australia earlier in the year. It has also vastly improved her mental strength, which has helped her out of many tough situations recently.

Going into the final in Doha, Safarova had never beaten Victoria Azarenka in six meetings, and it was this improved mental strength that helped her in the most important points. This translated into her game, for the Czech was able to play an extremely clean match, winning 70% of points behind her first serve, as well as maintaining a first-serve percentage of 72%. Safarova has been known for her close losses to top players, and closing this final out was similarly difficult for the Czech. She began to play passively towards the final few games of the match, relying more and more on her injured opponent to make errors. This was most evident in the final game of the match, when Safarova didn’t win until her third championship point, which was the result of a close error from Azarenka.

Both Czech women will be intriguing dark horses to watch at Indian Wells and Miami in March.