Svitolina comes to Malaysian Open on a high

It ain’t heavy: Elina Svitolina holding the trophy after beating Caroline Wozniacki in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships on Saturday. — Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR: The ALYA WTA Malaysian Open tennis championship is going to have a world top 10 player in its field after all.

Earlier Elina Svitolina was the highest ranked player at No. 13 to confirm her participation in the US$226,500 (RM1mil) event at the TPC Kuala Lumpur.

But the Ukrainian will move up to No. 10 this week after beating former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki for her biggest career win at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Saturday.

Fourth seed Peng Shuai of China will also be travelling to Kuala Lumpur in fine form, having reached the doubles final in Dubai with Czech Andrea Hlavackova.

Peng Shuai-Hlavackova eventually finish runner-up to Russians Elina Vesnina-Ekaterina Makarova.

Meanwhile, national No.1 Jawai­riah Noordin failed in her fifth bid to become the first Malaysian to win a singles match at the Malaysian Open.

The 22-year-old went down 6-4, 6-1 in 78 minutes in the first round of the qualifying tournament to Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic.

Jawairiah later announced that she “has had enough” after another disappointing bid.

“I failed to win a match on my fifth attempt. If I am offered a wildcard next year, I will hand it to an upcoming local player,” said Jawai­riah.

Jaiwairiah can still salvage some pride as she will be playing in the doubles with Indonesian Jessy Rompies.

They combined to win an International Tennis Federation (ITF) title at the Hua Hin Open last year.

Jaiwairiah-Jessy will take on Belgian Elise Mertens and Ipek Soylu of Turkey in the opening round of the tournament proper.

Malaysian S. Theiviya will also play in the doubles after being handed a wildcard. She will combine with Indonesian Beatrice Gumulya and they face second seeds Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Yang Zhaoxuan of China.