MIR BASIT HUSSAIN

DOHA THE much-awaited 10th anniversary edition of the Qatar Total Open is all set to unfold at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex on Monday.

With all the top eight seeds having a bye in the opening round, all eyes will be on three of the four seeds in action on Monday at the show court. Shuai Peng will face wild card Fatima al Nabhani of Oman at 3.30 pm.

This match will be followed by the match-up between Anna Ivanovic of Serbia, 13th seed, against Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain at 5.30 pm.

The Serbian pin-up Ivanovic, currently world-ranked 18th, is trying hard to stop her downslide for quite some time. The Qatar Total Open may provide the former world No 1 a good springboard to launch herself.

Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, a winner of two grand slam crowns, will play against Spanish Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez. Svetlana has been two times finalist in Doha as well.

However, the highest seed player tomorrow will be Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The Russian, No 10th, will play against Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan at the outside court No 1
All the eight qualifiers have been spotted on Sunday.

Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada defeated Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski in straight sets (6-3 6- 2) and booked a place in the main draw. Wozaniak is seeded 3rd in the qualifiers and stands at 84th in the WTA rankings.

Russian Vera Dushevina overcame Kristina Barrois of Germany to move into the main draw. She won 6-3 6-1. Dushevina, who is world number 90, is seeded 7th in the tournament qualifiers. The match-up between Urszla Radwanska of Poland and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia was the longest and Radwanska came out victorious by 6-2 5-7 and 6-4. The Pole is also a seeded player in the qualifiers and stands at number 4. Moreover, she is world number 85.

Other seeded players who qualified for the main draws are Anne Keothavong (seeded no.5) of Great Britain, Kateryna Bondareniko of Ukraine (seeded 6th) and Virgine Razzano of France (seeded 10th).

The only seeded player who lost was Heather Watson of Great Britain.

The 15th seed lost to fifth seed Anne Keothavong, also from the Great Britain.

The qualifiers who will try out each other on Monday are Aleksandra Wozniak of Poland and V Lepchenko of the US. Also, qualifiers Dushevina and Bondarenko will battle each other at the court number 2.