staddoha.com
Former WTA Qatar Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will be looking to seal her second title but her path to the final stage this year won’t be an easy one.
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.
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.