Day one of the Qatar Total Open 2014 saw three qualifiers deliver first-round wins, the #11 and 14-seeds fall, Venus Williams keep her unforced errors to a minimum, and the annual Player’s Party at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Meanwhile, in Seville…Spain and the Czech Republic continued their rain-delayed First Round Fed Cup Tie, where Andrea Hlavackova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova clinched the win 7-6(7), 6-3 in the 5th and deciding doubles rubber. The Czech Republic will now host Italy this April in the 2014 Fed Cup World Group Semifinals.
After the win, Klara Zakopalova and Lucie Safarova headed straight to the airport; both have scheduled first-round matches Tuesday evening in Doha: Safarova vs. Kirsten Flipkens and Zakopalova vs. Elina Svitolina. Spain’s Carla Suarerz Navarro – who won both of her singles rubbers in the Fed Cup Tie – chose to withdraw from the Qatar Total Open. She was scheduled to play recent Paris winner Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round…honors that will now fall on “lucky loser” Tadeja Majeric from the Slovak Republic. Majeric had fallen in qualifying to Su-Wei Hsieh from Chinese Taipei (6-1, 6-4).
RESULTS: Qatar Total Open 2014. Day One. Singles First Round.
- V Williams (USA) d [Q] P Martic (CRO) 62 62
- S Peng (CHN) d [Q] N Petrova (RUS) 76(5) 75
- A Beck (GER) d M Barthel (GER) 76(5) 62
- [Q] T Pironkova (BUL) d [11] R Vinci (ITA) 63 63
- [Q] P Cetkovska (CZE) d [14] S Stephens (USA) 75 61 (Analysis)
- [Q] S Hsieh (TPE) d F Pennetta (ITA) 75 63
RESULTS: Qatar Total Open 2014. Day One. Doubles First Round.
- J Jankovic (SRB) / A Kleybanova (RUS) d V Lepchenko (USA) / A Panova (RUS) 76(3) 06 10-2
- K Pliskova (CZE) / K Pliskova (CZE) d [WC] F Al Nabhani (OMA) / M Honcova (SVK) 63 62
- I Buryachok (UKR) / V Diatchenko (RUS) d V Dushevina (RUS) / A Parra Santonja (ESP) 63 26 10-3
The Qatar Tennis Federation and Total also hosted the Player Party last night at the Four Seasons. A huge thanks to TennisTV’s Jason Goodall for handling player introductions, interviews, emcee duties…on top of delivering top-notch match analysis for television. As you can understand, with so many players still in transit after a crazy Fed Cup weekend, we didn’t necessarily have a packed house for the gala! (Check out this tweet from Ana Ivanovic)
Still it was fun night with great entertainment featuring acrobats from around the world. On stage, we capped the evening with a little Qatar Total Open trivia. Congratulations to Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele, who knew the answer to this one:
Which 2014 main draw singles player was part of the doubles team that won the event’s first doubles title?
A) Janette Husarova
B) Lisa Raymond
C) Roberta Vinci
Here’s a clue – she’s not American or Slovak. The audience thought it might be Lisa Raymond, but Stefanie was fast to point out that we were talking about a ‘2014 main draw singles player.’ She’s quick – that one. Roberta Vinci was the answer…Stefanie won some additional gifts from the QTF…and not minutes later, Roberta was defeated on center court by qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova. Hmm.
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Qatar Total Open 2014. Day Two. Singles First Round:
- [9] A Ivanovic (SRB) vs D Hantuchova (SVK)
- [10] D Cibulkova (SVK) vs [WC] A Kleybanova (RUS)
- [12] S Stosur (AUS) vs M Erakovic (NZL)
- [15] E Bouchard (CAN) vs B Mattek-Sands (USA)
- [16] K Flipkens (BEL) vs L Safarova (CZE)
- F Schiavone (ITA) vs M Rybarikova (SVK)
- [LL] T Majeric (SLO) vs A Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
- S Voegele (SUI) vs A Cornet (FRA)
- A Petkovic (GER) vs Y Wickmayer (BEL)
- K Kanepi (EST) vs V Lepchenko (USA)
- [Q] A Kudryavtseva (RUS) vs S Cirstea (ROU)
- S Zhang (CHN) vs [Q] M Zanevska (UKR)
- K Pliskova (CZE) vs [WC] C Buyukakcay (TUR)
- M Niculescu (ROU) vs [WC] F Al Nabhani (OMA)
- [Q] M Lucic-Baroni (CRO) vs Y Meusburger (AUT)
- E Svitolina (UKR) vs K Zakopalova (CZE)
- K Mladenovic (FRA) vs J Cepelova (SVK)
- K Knapp (ITA) vs C Garcia (FRA)
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Qatar Total Open 2014. Day Two. Doubles First Round:
- [6] R Kops-Jones (USA) / A Spears (USA) vs Barthel (GER) / M Moulton-Levy (USA)
- [7] A Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) / N Petrova (RUS) vs [WC] Y Beygelzimer (UKR) / O Savchuk (UKR)
- H Chan (TPE) / L Huber (USA) vs S Klemenschits (AUT) / I Olaru (ROU)
- J Husarova (SVK) / A Rosolska (POL) vs L Raymond (USA) / S Zhang (CHN)
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