Belarusian Aryana Sabalenka (left) and Poland's Iga Swiatek during a promotional event in Doha.
Doha, Qatar: Polish sensation Iga Swiatek will be aiming for an unprecedented fourth straight Qatar TotalEnergies Open title as the season’s first WTA Tour 1000 tournament kicks off at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex today.
With a 13-1 career record in Doha, Swiatek remains the favourite, but she will be up against a stellar field once again, including the Australian Open finalist and former champion Aryana Sabalenka and previous title holders Victoria Azarenka and Elise Mertens.
Swiatek, along with seven others, including the World No. 1 Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Emma Navarro, Qinwen Zheng, Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina, enjoy byes into the second round.
Swiatek enjoys an electrifying record in Doha, having not dropped a set in the tournament since 2022. She is on a collision course against Rybakina in the quarters in a rematch of last year’s final.
Swiatek, seeded No. 2 this time, will face either No. 9-ranked Maria Sakkari or Roumanian qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse who meet in today’s first match on centre court.
World No. 1 and 2020 Doha champion Aryna Sabalenka will face either former US Open champion Emma Raducanu or in-form Ekaterina Alexandrova in her opener.
Alexandrova enters the tournament fresh off her title win in Linz, making today’s clash against the Briton one of the most anticipated early matchups.
Among the other mouthwatering first-round duels, Marketa Vondrousova takes on Elina Svitolina as she looks to set up a meeting with No. 6 seed Pegula.
Nineteen months ago, they met in the semi-final at Wimbledon, where unseeded Vondrousova beat Svitolina on her way to a memorable title.
Another exciting match sees two-time Qatar Open champion Victoria Azarenka going up against Amanda Anisimova.
The winner will face No. 9 seed Paula Badosa.
Elise Mertens and Clara Tauson also meet today in a round 1 clash. Both of them have strong 10-2 records so far this season, making this an unpredictable encounter.
Meanwhile, former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez meets Belgian Greet Minnen in the opening round, with the winner set to face 8th seed Emma Navarro.
With the stage set for top-class tennis action, the question will remain, will Swiatek make history with a fourth Qatar TotalEnergies Open title in a row, or a new champion will be crowned?
Tennis fans will come to know on February 15.
Today's Order of Play
Centre Court: Starts at 3.30pm
M Sakkari vs E Ruse
Followed by: K Volynets vs M Andreeva
Followed by: E Raducanu vs E Alexandrova
Followed by: A Anisimova vs V Azarenka
Grandstand 1: Starts at 2pm
Y Yuan vs C Garcia
Followed by: G Minnen vs L Fernandez
Followed by: L Samsanova vs L Sun.
Grandstand 2: Starts at 2pm
A Parks vs D Shnaider
Followed by: E Mertens vs C tauson
Followed by: M Kostyuk vs Z Sönmez
Followed by: E Avanesyan vs X Wang
Grandstand 3: Stars at 2pm
C Bucsa vs A Kalinskaya
Doubles
B Mattek Sands/L Safarova vs Y Xu/Z Yang
Followed by: C Bucsa/M Kato vs X Jiang/F Wu
Grandstand 4: Starts at 2pm
T Babos/N Melichar-Martinez vs P Stearns/L Stefani
Followed by: U Eikeri/M Niculescu vs L Noskova/Y Putintseva
