Defending champ Amanda Anisimova bows out of Qatar opener

Amanda Anisimova, the No. 3 seed and reigning champion at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2026, was forced to retire due to illness in the third set of her opening match against Karolina Pliskova on Monday in Doha.

Anisimova fared well against her Czech opponent, splitting the first two sets 7-5, 6-7 (3), but trailed 4-1 in the third set when she packed it in.

"I was really happy to be back and excited to play," Anisimova said in a statement afterward. "I got sick here, so I wasn't feeling my best, but I thought it was a good match regardless. I feel we both played really well. Congrats to her, it's good to see her back playing."

Pliskova is also familiar with Qatar, winning there in 2017. She had seven aces and saved 6 of 10 break points on Monday.

"It feels great to be back," Pliskova said in her on-court interview after missing a year with an ankle injury. "I missed (the fans) as well, last year. As you know, I won here, so I have great memories. Two years ago, I played the semifinals. So I just enjoy this place so much."

Anisimova was not the only player to fall victim to illness in Qatar. Great Britain's Emma Raducanu also retired in the third set of her opener Monday.

Raducanu was coming off a 6-0, 6-2 loss in the final of the Transylvania Open on Saturday, when she used a medical timeout and admitted afterward that she did not have her best effort. Her health was in question again Monday in her match against Colombia's Camila Osorio; during a third-set timeout she saw a doctor who took her blood pressure, something that also occurred Saturday.

Osorio advanced out of the Round of 64, 2-6, 6-4, 2-0 (retired).

The Pliskova-Anisimova match was a Round of 32 affair, as was Russian No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva's 7-6 (0), 6-1 win over Poland's Magda Linette. Andreeva saved 10 of 11 break points in the one-hour, 43-minute battle.

The rest of Monday's matches were Round of 64 fixtures.

Czech ninth seed Linda Noskova breezed past Australian Maya Joint 6-4, 6-0 in 65 minutes. No. 12 Emma Navarro defeated Germany's Tatjana Maria 7-5, 6-1, while Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic upset No. 11 Clara Tauson of Denmark, 6-4, 6-1.

Indonesia's Janice Tjen stuffed Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-0, 6-1 in 69 minutes, while Russian Anna Kalinskaya prevailed 6-2, 6-1 over Span's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in 67 minutes. Other winners included China's Xinyu Wang and Qinwen Zheng, Maria Sakkari of Greece, Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko, Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska and the Czech Republic's Tereza Valentova.

--Field Level Media