The former WTA number one Simona Halep lost in the first round of the WTA 1000 Qatar Open. She was defeated at the start of the tournament by the French Caroline Garcia with 2-0 (6:4, 6:3) in a match that lasted an hour and a half.
Caroline Garcia won with only two breaks, but this was quite enough as both were in the very right moment. The first set started with four very long and interesting games, both the players saving 11 break points (6 saved by Simona Halep and 5 saved by Caroline Garcia), but there were no breaks. Only in the tenth game of the first set, the French player succeed to break her opponent closing the set at 6:4.
In the second set, Caroline Garcia took a lead with 3:0 after breaking the service of her opponent. By the end of the match, she succeeded to win her service games and won the set by 6:3 and the match with 2-0.
In the second round, Caroline Garcia will face Cori Gauff, who defeated Shelby Rogers with 2-0 (6:2, 6:3).
In the other matches of the day, Elise Mertens won versus Jasmine Paolini with 2-1 (6:3, 2:6, 7:5), Petra Kvitova qualified for the second round after a win versus Irina Begu by 2-0 (6:3, 6:1), and Jil Belen Teichmann eliminated Angelique Kerber by 2-1 (4:6, 6:3, 6:2).
