WTA Qatar Total Open
First Round - Women
Caroline Garcia over Lesia Tsurenko
When both the ATP and the WTA Tours break from the Grand Slam tournaments, most of the resultant tournaments have 32 person draws and pretty tough qualifying draws that feed into those 32 person draws. The Qatar Total Open is a perfect example. This tournament features the #3, #5, #6 and #7 ranked players in the world. Names like Tomljanovic, Spears, Riske, Kalinskaya, Brady, Brengle, Bouchard, Stosur, Lepchenko and others have been relegated to the Qualies just to get into the main draw here. Since there are only 8 qualifying spots, most of them don’t make it. But Caroline Garcia and Lesia Tsurenko got right in, because of their high rankings. Tsurenko has been around for a dozen years now and has collected a lot of lifetime wins, but in her only match against Garcia, the Ukrainian came up short. Granted, that came in 2016 on clay, but even so, Garcia, the Frenchwoman, won in straight sets. I would expect Garcia to once again be victorious and move on to a round 2 matchup with top-seeded Simona Halep.
Barbora Strycova over Fatma Al Nabhani
Strycova, the 32-year-old from the Czech Republic has been playing on the WTA Tour since she was 16 years old. She has collected over 540 singles wins, 451 doubles wins, and $9.2 Million in total prize money. She also holds a win in the only match where these two have played, here in Doha, Qatar in 2017, where she dominated Al Nabhani 6-3, 6-0. I suspect that Strycova should take out Al Nabhani once again on the hard courts here. My question really is, will we see Al Nabhani elsewhere other than just when she surfaces in Qatar?
Carla Suarez Navarro over Ons Jabeur
Suarez Navarro is a gristled veteran of 30, having had a solid career since joining the Tour in 2003. The Spaniard has collected 492 career singles wins along with two singles and three doubles titles in that time, and has been able to bank almost $11 million in total prize money. Jabeur, the 24-year-old Tunisian, has been playing on the Tour for nine years already, but has failed to make a big splash, although merely gaining direct entry into the main draw here is an accomplishment built on her current ranking of 56. Navarro, however, with a rank of 26, has a more complete game, more experience, and should come away with a win and move into a second round collision with the winner of Kiki Bertens and Camila Giorgi.