Emma Raducanu (Great Britain) squandered a set point in the second set tiebreak to lose by 0-2 (0:6, 6:7) to Anhelina Kalinina (Ukraine) in the first round of the WTA 1000 Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha with a prize money of 3,211,715 USD.
Emma Raducanu received a wild card for the first tournament of the season but suffered a fourth loss in seven games since returning from injury. The British number seven did not take a game in the first set but resisted in the second and had a point in the tiebreak to take the set at 6:5, but Anhelina Kalinina won the next three points to take the match after 1:41 hours of play.
In the second round, Anhelina Kalinina will face the 8th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia).
In the other matches from the first round of the tournament, Emma Navarro (USA) defeated Jasmine Paolini (Italy) by 2-0 (6:3, 7:5) and will face Elise Mertens (Belgium), who eliminated Peyton Stearns (USA) by 2-0 (6:2, 6:3).
Paula Badosa (Spain) also advanced to the second round after winning versus Ashlyn Krueger (USA) by 2-1 (6:3, 4:6, 6:4), where will play versus Leylah Fernandez (Canada), who eliminated Liudmila Samsonova (Russia) by 2-0 (7:5, 7:6).
The former world’s number one Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) also had a strong start of the WTA 1000 Qatar TotalEnergies Open after eliminating Magdalena Frech (Poland) by 2-1 (6:3, 3:6, 6:3), as well as Petra Martic (Croatia), who defeated Arantxa Rus(Netherlands) by 2-1 (7:5, 3:6, 7:6).
Anastasia Potapova (Russia), Magda Linette (Poland) and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) also qualified for the second round after straight-set victories.
