Tuesday at the Qatar Total Open was marked by Elena Vesnina’s first match since mid-2018 and Madison Keys’ start of the 2021 season. Let’s go through today’s tennis photos and see everything that happened in the opening round of singles and doubles in Doha.
Coming off maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2021 Australian Open, American world No.44 Jessica Pegula went through qualifying to earn a spot in the Qatar Total Open main draw and then advanced further on Tuesday with a 6-2 6-1 first-round victory over China’s Wang Qiang.
It was an encounter of two Adidas-clad players who both combined yellow and green pieces from the PRIMEBLUE x HEAT.RDY collection.
Later in the day we had another fashion twinning, this time with Lotto. Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Anna Blinkova of Russia both wore the Spring Tech Print Top and Spring Tech Skirt.
The world No.31 Jabeur defeated qualifier Blinkova 6-2 6-2 in 68 minutes.
This is Laura Siegemund warming up for her meeting with Elena Rybakina. The 56th-ranked German qualifier Siegemund held off comeback attempts from Rybakina in each set and overcame a 33-place rankings gap to edge the Kazakh 7-6(7) 7-6(5).
Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Czech qualifier Kristyna Pliskova 6-2 6-3 in the first round on Tuesday.
Playing her first match this season, Madison Keys recorded a commanding 6-4 6-1 victory over sixth seed Belinda Bencic. It was their first meeting since 2015.
The 12th-ranked Bencic came to Doha right after reaching the final of the Adelaide International.
Our photographer Jimmie48 is a master of depicting the pre-match mood of players. How awesome are these black-and-white pics of Madison and Belinda!
Misaki Doi of Japan upset China’s Zheng Saisai 6-4 6-3. Zheng had won all their previous meetings, including two on ITF circuit, and also made Doha quarterfinals last year in her last tournament of 2020.
Sania Mirza talked to the media this Tuesday. Playing her first tournament after a year of absence, the Indian teamed up with Slovenian Andreja Klepac and advanced to doubles quarterfinals on Monday.
Elena Vesnina made a victorious return to the tour. In action for the first time since becoming a mom, Vesnina partnered with Siegemund and the pair defeated Elina Svitolina and Victoria Azarenka 4-6 7-5 10-8 to reach the doubles quarterfinals.
We don’t like to see singles players dressed the same when they play against each other, but matching is welcome in doubles teams. Svitolina and Azarenka looked awesome in the purple Nike Spring Melbourne Skirt and Jimmie48’s photos prove that. This pic is my favorite.
Wednesday at the Qatar Total Open will feature all second-round matches in singles and quarterfinals in doubles.
