Players taking part at Qatar TotalEnergies Open amused fans at Mina District.
Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka will begin her quest for another title in Doha when she takes on Turkish Ipek Oz as the main round of the WTA Qatar TotalEnergies Open kicks off at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha, today.
Wild card entrant Azarenka - winner in 2012 and 2013 editions - came close to a third crown when she reached the final once again in 2015 before she lost to Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in the title clash.
The opening match against the 196th-ranked 23-year-old today should be a walk in the park for the 6-foot-tall World No.16, but the clash against the Turkish player may also have extra significance to the former World No.1 Azarenka.
Following the deadly earthquake which rocked Turkey and Syria last week, Azarenka has been tirelessly working behind the scenes to organise relief efforts in the wake of the devastation, international media reported quoting former tennis player Ipek Senoglu.
However, on court, Azarenka has a 68.1% winning percentage in service games and a 39.0% winning percentage in return games, details showed.
Azarenka was eliminated in the semi-final of her most recent tournament, the Australian Open last month, when she went down 6-7, 3-6 to Elena Rybakina.
Canada's Leylah Fernandez in action during the qualifying round yesterday. Fernandez beat Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to set up a qualifying battle against former champion Karolína Pliskova.
In other singles main round matches today, Czech Karolina Muchova meets Italian World No. 25 Martina Trevisan to kick off the proceedings at the Centre Court.
Another Czech, World No.30 Barbora Krejcikova will meet Russian World No.11 Veronika Kudermetova in an encounter which promises to be a thrilling clash.
With seven out of the world’s best ranked players in action, the Doha tournament has become one of the strongest non-grand slam events on the WTA calendar, with the likes of Azarenka, Maria Sakkari, Azarenka and Sofia Kenin being awarded the wild card entries.
Two-time winner Petra Kvitova was impressed with the strong draw, and said she looks forward to take one step at a time.
“Such great players in the tournament. It’s a tough field and I am taking step by step,” World No.13 Kvitova said ahead her opening clash against Chinese challenger Zhang Shuai.
“I know the conditions. The surface is slow as well bouncing a little bit higher. It’s very windy some time, especially in the night. It’s a beautiful tournament. It always new thing happening here and it’s good for players,” Kvitova who won the Doha title in 2018 and 2021 while finishing as runner-up in 2020, said.
Kvitova reached the quarter-finals in the recently concluded Adelaide Open, but lost in the second round to Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina at the Australian Open few weeks ago.
“I had good preparations after Australia Open as I was back home for two week before coming here. It’s always great to be back in Doha and I am looking forward for another one,”Kvitova said.
Order of Play
Center Court
Starts at 03:30pm
Round of 32
(CZE) K. Muchova vs (ITA) M. Trevisan
Followed by
Round of 32
(CZE) B. Krejcikova vs (RUS) V. Kudermetova (8)
Followed by
Round of 32
(TUR) I. Ozvs (BLR) V. Azarenka
Not Before 8:00pm
Round of 16
(USA) C. Gauff/(USA) J. Pegula (1) vs (SVK) T. Mihalikova vs (CHN) Y. Xu
Grandstand 1
Not before 5:00pm
Round of 16
(QAT) M. Al Naimi/(RUS) E. Yashina vs (POL) A. Rosolska, (NZL) E. Routliffe
Round of 16
(USA) S. Kenin/(CZE) K. Muchova vs (UKR) L. Kichenok/(LAT) J. Ostapenko (2)
Grandstand 2
Not before 5:00pm
Round of 16
(CHN) Z. Yang/(RUS) V. Zvonareva vs (CZE) M. Bouzkova/(BRA) B. Haddad Maia
