Announcer. Andy Taylor. Qatar Total Open 2018 | Qatar Tennis Federation
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Announcer Andy Taylor recaps Day 1 of Qualifying at the 2018 Qatar Total Open
Day 1 of Qualifying. Qatar Total Open 2018
Saturday was a good day for American tennis in Doha. The Qatar Total Open’s qualifying field of 32 was reduced to 16. Three of those closer to the main draw include top-seeded 18-year-old Cici Bellis, Christina McHale and Bernarda Pera of the United States.
Cici Bellis
Bellis dominated a 16-year-old local hopeful, Mubaraka Al-Naimi – a fantastic young lady who simply oozes character and class. It was a huge ask, to face the qualifying top-seed as a wild card. The moment may have been too big this go-round, but the experience was invaluable.
Christina McHale
It’s been a tough start to the new season for New Jersey’s Christina McHale. She was 0-4 before her match on Saturday, where she eliminated Ukrainian wild card Anastasiya Vasylyeva, 6-0 in the second set.
Bernarda Pera
Croatian-American Bernarda Pera took-out the Czech Republic’s Tereza Martincova in straight-sets. Pera comes into Doha after a confidence boosting performance in Melbourne, where as a lucky loser, she defeated World #10 Johanna Konta to reach the 3rd-Round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Sara Sorribes Tormo
2-hours and 50 minutes. Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo won the marathon clash of the day, defeating Great Britain’s Naomi Broady 7-5 in the decider, after dropping the 2nd-set tie-break.
Kateryna Bondarenko
At 2-5 in the decider, Bulgaria’s Sesil Karatantcheva saved a few match points to keep the qualifier alive, but Kateryna Bondarenko earned the win on her next service game, claiming victory in 2-hours and 12-minutes.
Sabine Lisicki
Tough day for wild card Sabine Lisicki, who appeared to be gaining some traction last week after reaching the Semifinals in Taipei City. Now the World #174, the former top-20 staple and 2013 Wimbledon finalist fell to the surging Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, who comes into this year’s event with a career-high ranking of #54 in the world. Injuries have plagued Sabine over the past year. In fact, she didn’t start her 2018 season until last week’s phenomenal comeback in Taiwan.
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Full Qualifying Results and Sunday’s Schedule
- [1] Cici Bellis (USA) def [WC] Mubaraka Al-Naimi (QAT) 60 60
- Sofya Zhuk (RUS) def [9] Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 63 62
Court 2 | 11-Feb | 3:30p — [1] Cici Bellis (USA) vs Sofya Zhuk (RUS)
- [2] Naomi Osaka (JPN) def Jing-Jing Lu (CHN) 63 64
- [16] Danka Kovinic (MNE) def Michaela Honcova (SVK) 64 57 61
Court 1 | 11-Feb | 3:30p — [2] Naomi Osaka (JPN) vs [16] Danka Kovinic (MNE)
- [3] Marketa Vondrousova (CZE) def [WC] Sabine Lisicki (GER) 61 63
- Kristina Kucova (SVK) def [10] Oceane Dodin (FRA) 64 61
Court 5 | 11-Feb | 3:30p — [3] Marketa Vondrousova (CZE) vs Kristina Kucova (SVK)
- Vera Zvonareva (RUS) def [4] Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) 64 64
- [11] Ying-Ying Duan (CHN) def Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) 76(3) 64
Court 3 | 11-Feb | 3:30p — Vera Zvonareva (RUS) vs [11] Ying-Ying Duan (CHN)
- [5] Christina McHale (USA) def [WC] Anastasiya Vasylyeva (UKR) 63 60
- [14] Bernarda Pera (USA) def Tereza Martincova (CZE) 62 64
Court 1 | 11-Feb | 5:00p — [5] Christina McHale (USA) vs [14] Bernarda Pera (USA)
- [6] Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) def Sesil Karatantcheva (BUL) 63 46 63
- [13] Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP) def Naomi Broady (GBR) 64 67(1) 75
Court 5 | 11-Feb | 5:00p — [6] Kat. Bondarenko (UKR) vs [13] Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP)
- [7] Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) def Arina Rodionova (AUS)64 75
- Anna Blinkova (RUS) def [15] Jana Fett (CRO) 61 61
Court 3 | 11-Feb | 5:00p — [7] Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) vs Anna Blinkova (RUS)
- [8] Monica Niculescu (ROU) def Risa Ozaki (JPN) 61 60
- [12] Andrea Petkovic (GER) def Xinyun Han (CHN) 63 61
