Kerber, Halep Bounced in Doha
Upsets were the theme of the day at the Qatar Open in Doha on Tuesday as both top-seed and Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber and second-seed Simona Halep were both defeated by unseeded opponents in second round action.
Playing in her first WTA match since capturing the first Grand Slam of her career, Kerber was undone by Zheng Saisai, ranked 73rd in the world, who beat the German 7-5, 6-1.
“The feeling is amazing here today,” said Zheng. “Kerber was amazing at the Australian Open and a great champion. For sure it wasn’t her best tennis, but I’m happy I won that match.”
After securing a late break to win the opening set, Zheng steamrolled through the second set, breaking Kerber three times to become only the fourth Chinese player ever to beat one of the world’s top two players.
Zheng will take on Eugenie Bouchard in the third-round. Bouchard beat Denisa Allertova 7-6(0), 7-5 on Tuesday.
Second-seed Simona Halep’s 2016 struggles continued as she was eliminated from Doha.
Elena Vesnina came back from a set down to beat Halep 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-1 in what is one of the biggest wins of the Russian’s career.
Halep snuck out the first set in a tiebreaker and seemed to be on her way to an easy victory as she built a 4-1 advantage in the second set. But Vesnina completely flipped the script from there.
The qualifier rattled off the next five games to steal the second set and even the match at one set a piece. Even then, Halep would garner the early third-set advantage with a break at love.
But once again, Vesnina showed her fight, winning the next six games to pull off the upset and shock Halep.
“That’s my character—I’m always fighting until the end,” said Vesnina. “Simona is a great player; she’s such a solid player. She’s had an amazing couple of years; she’s in the top 10 in the world. I’m really pleased with my game today.”
American Coco Vandeweghe notched an upset of her own as she rolled past sixth-seeded Swiss Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2 to book her spot in the third-round.
Vandeweghe saved all four of the break points she faced and broke Bencic three times to move through in one hour and 12 minutes.
Up next for Vandeweghe is German Andrea Petkovic, who ousted Margarita Gasparyan 6-3, 6-3 in her second round match.
Third-seed Agnieszka Radwanska, fourth-seed Garbine Muguruza, fifth-seed Petra Kvitova, eighth-seed Carla Suarez-Navarro and ninth-seed Roberta Vinci were all able to avoid the upset bug going around Doha and advance to the third-round on Tuesday.
