Simona Halep officially pulled out of Doha today.  This doesn’t come as a great surprise, but what it has done is shake up the draw and make the majority of my predictions obselete… that will teach me for posting the preview early! Caroline Wozniacki has been bumped up to the number two seed and will now play Alize Cornet or a qualifier in the second round.  Ekaterina Makarova has taken Wozniacki’s place in the draw and will now play Lucie Safarova or Sam Stosur in the second round.  Carla Suarez Navarro is now the number nine seed and has taken Makarova’s place in the draw, which means she plays Garbine Muguruza in the first round.  It’s a London buses match-up! The pair hadn’t played before last week, but now they will play each other for the second time in a week.

I was regretting my predictions of going for Caroline and Venus to make the final.  The draw reshuffle has just completely confused me even more to the point where i’m wondering whether there is any point doing a draw for this one.  In line with many people who have commented in the last day, i’d actually go for Vika now.  Although I had Venus as my finalist, I don’t think she will win this week.  If Caro and Vika were to meet in the quarters, i’d definitely give the edge to Vika, who will be much fresher.  The top half is difficult.  I don’t fancy Petra to win this tournament and i’d take either a Petkovic, Makarova or Safarova to reach the final…

Doha main draw kicks off tomorrow… I’m disappointed Lucie is the late night match as I could miss it! I’m at home this weekend and will be travelling. I want to watch both Vika-Angie and Lucie-Sam, but i’m not sure that I will have enough time to get home while Venus and Casey are playing.  Decisions, decisions, decisions!!!