Naomi Osaka battled into the last 16 of the Qatar Open yesterday but Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur crashed to surprise second-round exits with straight-sets defeats.Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka brushed past Croatia’s Petra Martic 6-3, 7-6 (11/9), continuing a comeback from maternity leave after giving birth to her daughter in July.Osaka grasped control with a break in the fourth game of the opening set. She broke twice more in the second set –either side of dropping her own serve – only to blow a chance to close out the match at 5-4.Martic threatened to force a third set as she won the first four points of the tie-break, but Osaka then saved four set points before her opponent double-faulted down match point.World number three Gauff lost 6-2, 6-4 to Katerina Siniakova in her opening match, marking the first time she has failed to reach the quarter-finals of a tournament since Wimbledon last year.US Open champion Gauff dropped serve six times in an error-strewn display, blowing a 4-0 lead in the second set.Siniakova will face Danielle Collins in the last 16.Fourth seed Jabeur slumped to a 6-3, 6-2 loss to Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko, continuing a difficult start to the year for the Tunisian.Tsurenko won nine straight games from 3-1 down in the first set against World No.6 Jabeur – including a nine-deuce break of serve on her 10th break point to level the opener at 3-3 – to score her first Top 10 victory in five years.The now 34-year-old’s last, ironically, was a 6-2, 6-4 win against Osaka in the semifinals of the 2019 Brisbane International. Osaka leads their all-time head-to-head, 2-1, but they haven’t played since then.Jabeur, meanwhile, told reporters after the match that she was plagued by "small problems” in her right knee throughout the 81-minute affair – similar issues that affected her last week in a 6-3, 6-4 quarter-final loss to Beatriz Haddad Maia."Definitely much better than last week, but it’s still there, unfortunately,” the Tunisian said, but affirmed her plans to play next week in Dubai."It will not heal in two or three days, but I’m doing my best to heal it, and I think it’s going to be very positive for the next weeks.”Earlier yesterday, Australian Open runner-up Zheng Qinwen battled to victory in her first match since losing the Melbourne final to Aryna Sabalenka, beating Magda Linette 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
February 13, 2024 | 11:57 PM