Top five seed Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff advanced to the quarterfinals after posting victories Wednesday at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha.
The second-seeded Pegula defeated Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 in one hour, 52 minutes. Gauff cruised past Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (6) in one hour, 24 minutes.
Both players received byes into the second round, as did top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland, who needed less than an hour to defeat Danielle Collins 6-0, 6-1. Third-seeded Caroline Garcia of France also played her first match, defeating Czech Karolina Muchova 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-4 in three hours.
No. 5 Maria Sakkari of Greece defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia, Beatriz-Haddad Maia of Brazil upset No. 6 Daria Kasatkina of Russia, No. 7 Swiss Belinda Bencic needed three sets to rally past Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, and Russian Veronika Kudermetova swept Sofia Kenin.
Bencic withdrew after her victory, citing fatigue, a decision that pushed Swiatek (her next slated opponent) into the semifinals.
–Field Level Media
