Coco Gauff upset in Doha opener as forehand fails her

Field Level Media|published: Tue 13th February, 12:45 2024

Jan 25, 2024; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Coco Gauff of the United States celebrates against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the semi-final of the women s singles at the Australian Open. credits: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports

Czech Katerina Siniakova overcame a four-game deficit in the second set to upset second-seeded Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4 and advance to the third round of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open on Tuesday in Doha.

Gauff had a first-round bye and was making her Doha debut against Siniakova. The 19-year-old Gauff struggled in the opening set, facing 10 break points and saving only seven of them.

The second set started out as a different story, with Gauff racing to a 4-0 lead and breaking Siniakova twice. But the Czech regrouped and shifted into a different gear, winning the next six games to close the set. It was her second win in seven tries against Gauff.

Gauff, playing in her first match since reaching the Australian Open semifinals, was plagued by 30 forehand errors in the 80-minute match.

Next up for Siniakova will be another American, qualifier Danielle Collins, who bested Czech Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 7-5. Collins, the former World No. 7, has split her two career matches with Siniakova.

In another upset, 19-year-old Linda Noskova fought off two match points to defeat No. 7 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5.

With Sakkari up 5-3 in the second set, she held match point on the Czech's serve. But Noskova evened the game at deuce, then closed it out and broke Sakkari's serve in the subsequent game, tying the set at 5-5 and setting up the tiebreaker.

It was the fifth win against a top-10 player for Noskova, who will meet compatriot Karolina Pliskova in the third round. Pliskova also needed three sets to advance, downing Russian Anastasia Potapova 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

No. 5 seed Qinwen Zheng of China advanced with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Poland's Magda Linette, while No. 8 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine 6-0, 6-3.

Also moving to the third round with No. 14 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia, No. 16 seed Emma Navarro, Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Leylah Fernandez of Canada.

—Field Level Media

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