Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland (top), Victoria Azarenka of Belarus (right) during a practice session at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex yesterday, ahead of today’s main draw of the Qatar Total Open. Shahar Peer of Israel (below) during her qualifying round against Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh. Pictures: Noushad Thekkayil

By Satya Rath/Doha

Even before the first serve could be served at the Qatar Total Open, the event suffered a big blow when defending champion Simona Halep of Romania withdrew owing to a late injury.
Halep, who was seeded second here and had received a first-round bye, won the Dubai Classic title on Saturday and was heavily favoured to retain her title in Doha.
She though would still be attending some off-court promotional activities during the week, tournament organisers said in a statement.
“From our point of view the most important thing is the health of a player. It is unfortunate Simona has had to withdraw from defending her title. She is a popular player and we wish her well for her next tournament,” said Qatar Total Open tournament director Saad al-Mohannadi.
Despite Halep’s late pullout, the $731,000 WTA Premier event, beginning at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex today, still has plenty of star cast—with five of the world’s top 10 players featuring in the main draw.
The biggest gainer from Halep’s withdrawal could be France’s Alize Cornet. The 25-year-old plays a qualifier in her opening round match and the winner was scheduled to meet Halep next. The world number 19 Cornet, if she manages to overcome her first-round opponent today, will now directly make it to the quarter-finals.
On her day, Cornet can pull off the unthinkable, like her stunning straight sets win over Serena Williams at last year’s Dubai event. Serena hadn’t lost to anyone in straight sets in a year-and-a-half till then, and Cornet had gone into the match with a 0-17 record against top 10 players. It was her first win over a world number one, and she repeated the feat two more times in 2014, defeating the top-ranked American again at Wimbledon and Wuhan.
Top seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, who too has a first-round bye, is likely to open her Doha campaign against Serbian Jelena Jankovic—expecting that Jankovic, who plays a qualifier in the opening round, will come through unscathed. Kvitova lost to the former world number one in last year’s quarter-finals here.
“Every opponent is tough at this level. She (Jankovic) has always been a great fighter; she beat me here last year, so I know it won’t be easy,” Kvitova said yesterday.
She also sounded a bit wary about the high winds that have been blowing here over the last two days. “This year is a little bit different from what I remember from the last years, which is the wind. I hit the practice courts yesterday and it was really … nothing really similar to tennis.  The ball was flying more like badminton (cork), I can say. But it’s fun nevertheless, and you have to be ready for it.
“Sometimes it can be difficult too, to adjust to this not-expectable movement. But the weather’s warm here, so it’s always nice. And I feel well here on the court, it’s a little bit slow here than in Dubai,” said Kvitova, who lost in the third round at last week’s Dubai WTA event to Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
Another player who could prove a threat to everyone is Venus Williams. The American, seeded seventh here, has been playing her game of old in recent months after struggling with injuries for the last few years. She won the Auckland title in January and then made it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open the following week.
Venus will be opening her Doha campaign against Casey Dellacqua of Australia, ranked a distant 35th in the world. Fast-rising Andrea Petkovic of Germany, who plays a qualifier in her opener, could meet Venus in the second round, and going by the 2-2 head-to-head record between the two, it could be a tough fight to make the quarterfinals.
Former top-ranked player Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, after an injury-marred 2014 season, has been given a wild card for the Doha meet and she would be keen to get some much-needed confidence boost for the tougher tasks ahead in the year. Azarenka, who made it to the last 16 round of the Australian Open in January, though has a tough opener against Germany’s Angelique Kerber, seeded eighth here.
Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, seeded third, has a first-round bye and will meet the winner of the match between Australian Samantha Stosur and Lucie Safarova in her campaign opener. Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, seeded fourth, too has a day off and will meet either Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova or Flavia Pennetta of Italy in Round two.