DOHA – Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, Spain’s Paula Badosa, and Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina secured first-round victories at the WTA Qatar Open.
Arab superstar Jabeur thrilled the Doha crowds with a 6-2, 6-0 dismissal of McCartney Kessler. The Tunisian needed just 56 minutes to slice and dice her way past the power-hitting American.
“I thought I played really good,” Jabeur said in post-match press. “The level was very high. I definitely played my game, and listened to my coach, probably for the first time,” she added with a grin according to wtatennis.com.
Former World No. 2 Jabeur, the highest-ranked Arab player in tennis history, is making her milestone 10th Doha main-draw appearance this week. She kicked this run off with a bang, winning 89 percent of her second-service points en route to a swift win over 57th-ranked Kessler.
A two-time Doha quarter-finalist, Jabeur will need to collect a Top 10 win in order to make Round of 16.
Three-time defending champion Swiatek rolled into the third round with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Maria Sakkari of Greece.
The second-seeded Swiatek, who had a bye in the first round of the WTA 1000 event in Doha, trailed 3-2 in the first set before sweeping the next eight games to take control.
Swiatek is trying to become just the second woman in the 21st century to win a tournament four consecutive times after Caroline Wozniacki, who did so at New Haven from 2008-11.
“Every year it’s different, every year there is a different story, so it’s hard to compare and hard to find one thing that worked exactly,” Swiatek said when asked to explain her success at the event.
“From what I remember it’s not like I’ve been playing flawlessly, so it’s not like these tournaments were perfect, but at some point always I found some solutions,” Swiatek added according to Reuters.
“I think the conditions here are pretty tricky, and I was patient enough to just keep focusing on my game.”
Swiatek converted five of nine break points in the 82-minute match and awaits the winner between Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic and Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.
Canada’s Leylah Fernandez also moved into the third round with a swift 6-2, 6-2 upset of No. 8 seed Emma Navarro in 66 minutes.
Fernandez broke the American’s serve five times and won 81 per cent of the points (25 of 31) on her first serve.
The rest of the action involved first-round matches.
No. 10 Daria Kasatkina blitzed fellow Russian Polina Kudermetova 6-0, 6-0 in just 42 minutes. Kudermetova saved only one of seven break points and won only 18 of the match’s 68 points.
Noskova knocked off No. 15 Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-2, 6-4 in a first-round match. Noskova fired five aces and took advantage of four double faults by Vekic in the 74-minute win.
Ons Jabeur of Tunisia defeated McCartney Kessler 6-2, 6-0. Peyton Stearns was a 7-5, 6-3 winner over Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska.
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko cruised 6-2, 6-1 over Japan’s Aoi Ito. Sofia Kenin eliminated Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-4. Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia advanced 6-2, 6-3 over Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina.
Only two matches went three sets. Poland’s Magda Linette rallied for a 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 win over Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova.
Putintseva held off Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in two hours and 29 minutes.
Maria Sakkari has a new coaching team and a new outlook on life and, if she can stay healthy and patient, the Greek star is hoping it all leads to new heights in 2025.
Now 29 and battling to stay in the Top 30 of the WTA Rankings, Sakkari said that she’s as happy as she’s ever been.
She believes the shoulder injury that ended her season after the US Open was her body’s response to the mental and emotional stress built up over the last five years when she surged to become Greece’s first Top 5 player.
Her competitive drive and physical resilience formed the basis of a non-stop playing schedule ever since she cracked the Top 100 for good in 2017.
“The pressure, it was a lot, being constantly chased and having to prove something to everyone,” Sakkari told WTA Insider by phone after her first-round win at the Qatar Open.
