Tennis: Raluca Olaru qualifies for women's doubles round of 16 in Dubai (WTA)

The pair made up of Romanian tennis player Raluca Olaru and Croatian Darija Jurak qualified on Sunday for the finals of the doubles event at the WTA tournament in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) featuring total prizes worth 2,828,000 US dollars after 6-4, 7-5 with American pairing Jennifer Brady / Sabrina Santamaria.

Olaru and Jurak prevailed in an hour and 22 minutes and secured a 9,510 US dollar check and 105 WTA points in the doubles.

In the round of sixteen, Olaru and his partner will face off second seeded Nicole Melichar (USA) / Kveta Peschke (the Czech Republic).

In another match of the first round, the Romanian-Chinese pair Monica Niculescu / Xinyun Han was defeated by the Japanese duo Miyu Kato / Makoto Ninomiya, 6-3, 6-1 after exactly one hour of play. Niculescu and her partner will receive a 4,695 US dollar cheque and one WTA point in the doubles competition.

Two other Romanians will play in the doubles: Mihaela Buzarnescu plays alongside Polish Alicja Rosolska, against Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Germany) / Demi Schuurs (the Netherlands), and Irina Bara is pairing with Slovenian Dalila Jakupovic, against Belinda Bencic (Switzerland) / Daria Kasatkina (Russia).