WTA 1000 Doha 2/11 - 2/17 2024

[ashkor87]

Fernandez beating Samsonova is mildy surprising.

Yes, and very impressive...I keep hoping LF will win a major soon...French Open?
She doesn't generate her own power either but volleying is equally good as a tactic .works well on clay provided you don't just madly rush in behind everything...

[Suliso]

I doubt it and of course Samsonova will not win either.

[ashkor87]

Meanwhile Pavlyuchenkova beat Kasatkina...supports the theory (endorsed by Navratilova, please note) that people who can generate their own power will do well on slower courts like this one.

[ashkor87]

Much as I love Rybakina, I predict she will NOT win this one...her ability to play great two weeks in a row is suspect...mentally, physically not strong enough yet..look at the way she rolled through Brisbane and then stalled in Adelaide..same story last year with IW and Miami..hope she learns and endures but has she got there yet?

[meganfernandez]

Osaka had a nice 5 and 4 win against Garcia. Won it on her first MP and on Caro's first serve. I only saw the last few games, but Osaka was pretty solid and Garcia was up and down - spectacular plays but then some stinker errors. Osaka looked thrilled with the win.

[Fastbackss]

Much as I love Rybakina, I predict she will NOT win this one...her ability to play great two weeks in a row is suspect...mentally, physically not strong enough yet..look at the way she rolled through Brisbane and then stalled in Adelaide..same story last year with IW and Miami..hope she learns and endures but has she got there yet?

Kasatkina and Samsonova both went deep last week and also lost early.

[ponchi101]

I doubt it and of course Samsonova will not win either.

That USO final between Emma and Leylah has the chance of going down as the oddest final ever. Because I also doubt Leylah will win a major ever. No size and not enough power.

[meganfernandez]

I doubt it and of course Samsonova will not win either.

That USO final between Emma and Leylah has the chance of going down as the oddest final ever. Because I also doubt Leylah will win a major ever. No size and not enough power.

Looking more and more like it. Leylah had four wild wins on the US Open run - Osaka, Kerber, Svitolina, and Sabalenka in three tight sets, a couple times being 2 points from losing. It's not the kind of thing you can sustain week in and week out. But you never know. She's a legit top-30 player, doesn't give up, and could get lucky with a draw or hit a super high level for awhile. That's why they all keep playing. I thought she might be a Top 10 fixture, and maybe there is still time - she's kind of like Svitolina, right? And that woman knows how to win matches.

Imagine telling Leylah she would win those 4 outstanding matches and then lose the final to a lower-ranked wild card.

The big storyline in the 2021 Open was the rise of the teens, because in addition to Emma and Leylah, Alcaraz beat Tsitsipas 7-6 in the fifth and made the quarters (losing in a walkover to FAA, of all things)... Just goes to show how flimsy these one-Slam storylines are. And a lot of tennis story lines. They reflect a small snapshot of time.

[ti-amie]

Tuesday Order of Play

Centre Court
Starts at 7:30 AM

CHN Xinyu WANG vs BLR V. AZARENKA
UPCOMING
CZE K. SINIAKOVA vs USA C. GAUFF (2)
UPCOMING
TUN O. JABEUR (4) vs UKR L. TSURENKO
UPCOMING
CHN L. ZHU vs KAZ E. RYBAKINA (3)

Grandstand 1
Starts at 6:00 AM

CHN Q. ZHENG (5) vs POL M. LINETTE
UPCOMING
CZE L. NOSKOVA vs GRE M. SAKKARI (7)
UPCOMING
UKR A. KALININA vs LAT J. OSTAPENKO (8)
UPCOMING
CRO P. MARTIC vs JPN N. OSAKA

Grandstand 2
Starts at 6:00 AM

UKR M. KOSTYUK vs RUS A. PAVLYUCHENKOVA
UPCOMING
USA E. NAVARRO (16) vs BEL E. MERTENS
UPCOMING
USA D. COLLINS vs CZE M. BOUZKOVA
UPCOMING
TPE S. HSIEH/BEL E. MERTENS (1) vs CAN L. FERNANDEZ/GEO O. KALASHNIKOVA

Grandstand 3
Starts at 7:00 AM

ESP P. BADOSA vs CAN L. FERNANDEZ
UPCOMING
RUS A. POTAPOVA vs CZE K. PLISKOVA
UPCOMING
NOR U. EIKERI/CHN H. GUO vs USA B. MATTEK-SANDS/CHN Xinyu WANG
UPCOMING
USA C. DOLEHIDE/USA D. KRAWCZYK vs USA N. MELICHAR-MARTINEZ/AUS E. PEREZ (3)

Grandstand 4
Starts at 7:00 AM

JPN M. KATO/INA A. SUTJIADI vs ESP C. BUCSA/ROU M. NICULESCU
UPCOMING
RUS E. ANDREEVA vs RUS E. ALEXANDROVA (14)
UPCOMING
AUS S. HUNTER/USA A. PARKS (7) vs USA S. KENIN/NED A. RUS
UPCOMING
RUS E. ALEXANDROVA/RUS I. KHROMACHEVA vs CAN G. DABROWSKI/NZL E. ROUTLIFFE (2)

[Owendonovan]

Osaka had a nice 5 and 4 win against Garcia. Won it on her first MP and on Caro's first serve. I only saw the last few games, but Osaka was pretty solid and Garcia was up and down - spectacular plays but then some stinker errors. Osaka looked thrilled with the win.

I thought they matched up nicely in this one. This was a good test for Naomi, still needs a little polish, but could go deepish with the game she had tonight.

[martini4me]

Pliskova won the tournament in Romania Sunday, took an eight-hour flight to Doha and had to play her first-round match Monday night, coming back to defeat Kalinskaya in three sets.

[ashkor87]

Pliskova won the tournament in Romania Sunday, took an eight-hour flight to Doha and had to play her first-round match Monday night, coming back to defeat Kalinskaya in three sets.

that is the kind of person who deserves a first round bye not all these 'top 4' who have been mostly sleeping at home for two weeks!

[ponchi101]

...

Looking more and more like it. Leylah had four wild wins on the US Open run - Osaka, Kerber, Svitolina, and Sabalenka in three tight sets, a couple times being 2 points from losing. It's not the kind of thing you can sustain week in and week out. But you never know. She's a legit top-30 player, doesn't give up, and could get lucky with a draw or hit a super high level for awhile. That's why they all keep playing. I thought she might be a Top 10 fixture, and maybe there is still time - she's kind of like Svitolina, right? And that woman knows how to win matches.

Imagine telling Leylah she would win those 4 outstanding matches and then lose the final to a lower-ranked wild card.

The big storyline in the 2021 Open was the rise of the teens, because in addition to Emma and Leylah, Alcaraz beat Tsitsipas 7-6 in the fifth and made the quarters (losing in a walkover to FAA, of all things)... Just goes to show how flimsy these one-Slam storylines are. And a lot of tennis story lines. They reflect a small snapshot of time.

But you don't look at it that way. You look at it the opposite way. The USO run by Leylah was the aberration, the odd result. If you look at her career, she has been a steady climber, but by very small increments. After the USO, she has gone back to her usual results: several 1R, plenty of 2R, a QF her and there, a SF every once in a while, a smaller title once a year. That is not bad, but simply, not good enough for us to say she has Slam potential.

[ashkor87]

Leylah would have gone to the finals of RG if she hadn't injured her leg and foolishly kept playing

[ponchi101]

We don't know. It is not as if she is some monster on clay, a true force on that surface. She was playing well, for sure. But that does not mean certainty in the WTA these days.