Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka arrives at the Hamad International Airport
Doha: Former champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will be looking to seal her second title in Doha but her path to the final stage of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open this year won’t be an easy one, the official draw revealed yesterday.
Eight of the Top 10 and a number of former champions are in action at the season’s first WTA 1000 event.
No.1 seed Sabalenka, who defeated Petra Kvitova for the Doha title in 2020, and the other Top 8 seeds have first-round byes in the 56-player draw. In the second round, the World No. 2 will meet either Liudmila Samsonova or Alizé Cornet who just made her first major quarter-final at the recent Australian Open.
Garbine Muguruza of Spain
Sabalenka might bump into Angelique Kerber, the 2014 Doha runner-up, in the third round at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex.
Kerber will meet this week’s Dubai quarter-finalist Jil Teichmann in the first round. If she makes it past the Swiss player, Kerber will take on 2011 Doha champion and 2008 runner-up Vera Zvonareva or Alison Van Uytvanck to book a ticket to the clash against Sabalenka.
Iga Swiatek of Poland arrive at the Hamad International Airport.
Iga Swiatek (7) and Elena Rybakina (11) are also placed in the top quarter.
The second quarter is led by No.3 seed Paula Badosa of Spain, who has a tricky second-round clash against either recent Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic or rapidly rising teenager Clara Tauson.
No.6 seed Maria Sakkari is at the other end of this quarter. In the second round, Sakkari will take on the winner of an all-American opener between 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and Ann Li.
Two Americans are the other seeded players in this quarter, Jessica Pegula (9) and Coco Gauff (14). Gauff will play another American, Shelby Rogers, in the first round.
Former World No.1 Simona Halep, who defeated Kerber for the 2014 Doha title, will face wildcard Caroline Garcia in the first round, and Gauff or Rogers in the second round if she gets past Garcia. Halep is 7-1 against Garcia.
Anett Kontaveit (4) of Estonia and Ons Jabeur (8) of Tunisia head up the third quarter. This quarter also features Elina Svitolina (10) and Elise Mertens (16), as well as this week’s Dubai finalist Veronika Kudermetova.
Belgium’s Mertens won the Doha title in 2019 when she surprised Halep with a comeback from a set down in that year’s final. Mertens will meet Jasmine Paolini in this year’s opening round.
The winner of the Mertens-Paolini match could meet defending champion Kvitova in the second round. Kvitova won the Doha title in 2018 and last year, along with her 2020 runner-up showing.
The bottom quarter holds No.2 seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and No.5 seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain. Muguruza is a two-time Doha finalist, falling to Kvitova in the championship match in both 2018 and last year.
However, there won’t be a repeat of last year’s final this week as Kvitova is placed on a collision course with Muguruza in the semi-finals.
Czech World No: 25 Kvitova has enjoyed great success in Doha, where she has made the final in her last three appearances, winning 14 of her 15 matches in Doha, dating back to her first title run in 2018. Kvitova will face off against Irina-Camelia Begu in the first round.
No.12 seed Victoria Azarenka is also in this quarter, as she seeks her third Doha title. Azarenka, who won the event back-to-back in 2012 and 2013 and reached the final in 2015, will play Yulia Putintseva in the first round.
Also in the bottom quarter is Jelena Ostapenko (15), who made the Doha final in 2016. Ostapenko, a finalist in Dubai this week, will play a qualifier in her Doha opener, and could meet resurgent Amanda Anisimova in the second round.
The only Top 10 players missing from the Doha field are World No.1 Ashleigh Barty, who opted to skip the Middle East swing, and No.4 Karolina Pliskova, who is still recovering from an ongoing hand injury that has delayed her start to the season.
The Qatar TotalEnergies Open and Dubai Duty Free Championships alternate between WTA 1000 and WTA 500 levels each year. With Doha holding the WTA 500 designation last season, this year it is a WTA 1000.
