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, Feb. 13, 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.
Top-seeded Elena Rybakina defeated Russian Daria Kasatkina 6–1, 6–4, the seventh seed, in the final of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open on Sunday, giving Rybakina her second tour win of the season.
Overall, it’s her seventh tour win and fourth on the hard courts. Rybakina, of Kazakhstan, now is 11–2 on the season while Kasatkina fell to 9–4.
Rybakina hit on 86 percent of her first serves in the first set and 76 percent for the match, also benefiting from six service breaks and nine double faults from her opponent.
Tied at 4–4 in the second set, Kasatkina allowed two break points, dropping the second, to allow Rybakina to serve for the set. Rybakina finished with 17 winners and 12 unforced errors, compared to 14 and 27, respectively, for Kasatkina.
Czech Karolina Pliskova upset home-country favorite Ana Bogdan, the eighth seed, 6–4, 6–3 to win her first title in four years in the final in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Pliskova converted four of her 11 break chances and won 78 percent of points on her first serve, compared to 56 percent for her opponent.
A former World No. 1, Pliskova now is ranked No. 78. Sunday’s win was her 17th on tour. She didn’t drop a set throughout the week and moved to 4–0 against Bogdan.
Pliskova had not reached a tour singles final since August 2021, when she lost to Camila Giorgi of Italy in Montreal.
