The 2017 Qatar Total Open in Doha will be remembered as one of the wettest tournaments of the year… that’s not a sentence I expected to write at the start of the week considering Doha is in the desert! Despite all the stoppages, they did well to get the tournament finished on time. This post is a recap of some of the best bits of the week in Doha. Next week the WTA are in Dubai and a bumper preview will be up tonight. Read on for Doha’s Match Points…
Singles Champion
Karolina Pliskova won her second title of 2017 and extended her record to 15-1 in 2017 with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Caroline Wozniacki in the final. Wozniacki was playing some consistent tennis in the first set but not doing anything to hurt Pliskova who was both powerful and patient. Wozniacki improved in the second set on serve and also made some ventures into the net which were very effective. However, Pliskova remained rock solid behind her serve and stepped up her level at the very end to break Wozniacki with an aggressive return game.
Doubles Champions
Abigail Spears and Katerina Srebotnik won the doubles title in Doha, beating Yaroslava Shvedova and Olga Savchuk in the final, 6-3 7-6(7).
Super Stat
Karolina Pliskova had a 0-3 head-to-head record against Dominika Cibulkova in the semi-finals and Caroline Wozniacki in the final. She recorded her first wins against both players en route to winning the Doha title, her eighth WTA title.
Comeback Kid
Elena Vesnina recovered from 3-5 down in the third set of her first round match against Christina McHale and also saved three break points at *5-5 *0-40, eventually prevailing, 5-7 6-3 7-6(7) in two hours and 55 minutes.
Memorable Match
It was hard to watch matches this week but my favourite was the quarter-final between Monica Puig and Daria Kasatkina where Puig won the last four games to win a rain-interrupted match, 4-6 7-5 6-4 in two hours and 42 minutes.
Best Point
Staying with Kasatkina-Puig, the set point that Kasatkina converted in the first set was superb.
Best Shot(s)
I’ve gone for two this week which were both WTA shots of the day – Caroline Wozniacki’s get on a pretty decent drop shot from Agnieszka Radwanska and Roberta Vinci’s gorgeous touch up at the net against Lauren Davis, the latter which was also a great point.
Super Sportsmanship
Loved this between Monica and Daria.
LOL Moment
Anastasija Sevastova took an angry swipe with her racquet to the court after a missed groundstroke during her first round match against Sam Stosur. On the next point, break point down at 5-7 *3-4 *40-Adv, her racquet head went flying off in the opposite direction!
Tennis Draw Challenge Champion
Congratulations to Serpy95 who won the Draw Challenge for Doha. To join in the fun, you can enter Tennis Draw Challenge and join the Moo’s Tennis Blog league.
Moo's Tennis Blog 
Pliskova could well be a contender for the #1 ranking if she can continue this form. She has hardly anything to defend in the next few months.
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Agreed. I was really impressed how patient she was against Wozniacki. She never seemed to panic and played the big points well in the second set.
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