No. 8 seed Veronika Kudermetova of Russia outlasted Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 (5) in a first-round match Monday at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha.
Kudermetova finished with 27 winners and 18 unforced errors, compared to 41 winners and 25 unforced errors by Krejcikova in the three-hour match. Kudermetova has won all four of her tiebreaks so far this year.
Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic breezed to a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Italy’s Martina Trevisan and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus defeated Turkey’s Ipek Oz 6-1, 6-1.
Poland’s Iga Swiatek is the No. 1 seed for this WTA 500 event and will open against the first-round winner between Danielle Collins and qualifier Elise Mertens of Belgium.
–Field Level Media