Doha, 12 Feb. 2023 (QTF)

The draw for the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2023 was held at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex on Saturday.

Secretary General of Qatar Tennis, Squash and Badminton Federation Tariq Zainal, Tournament Director Saad Al Mohannadi, Member of Organizing Committee Karim Al Alami and Deputy VP HR, Communications & CSR at TotalEnergies Abdulla Mohsen attended the draw.

Ekaterina Alexandrova, Petra Kvitova, Ipek Oz and Danielle Collins were also present on the occasion.

The draw saw the top four seeds get a first-round bye including Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Caroline Garcia, Jessica Pegula.

Seven of the Top 10-ranked players will contest the Qatar TotalEnergies Open on hard courts starting on Monday. The tournament will run February 13-18.

The highlight of round 1 will see some thrilling matches as Turkey’s Ipek Oz will take on former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka while former Qatar TotalEnergies Open winner Petra Kvitova will meet China’s Zhang Shuai.

The 28-player draw in the second quarter has No.4 seed Coco Gauff, who has a first-round bye, and will face either Zhang Shuai or two-time Wimbledon and former Doha champion Petra Kvitova in her first match.

At the bottom of that section, No.8 seed Veronika Kudermetova will meet former Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova in the first round. The winner of that match will take on either Liudmila Samsonova or former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.

The third quarter is led by No.3 seed Caroline Garcia (with a first-round bye) and No.5 seed Maria Sakkari. Sakkari has a tricky opener against Zheng Qinwen, last season’s WTA Newcomer of the Year.

The final quarter sees No.2 seed Jessica Pegula at the very bottom of the draw, with a first-round bye.

Pegula will meet either her fellow American Madison Keys or former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in her first match.

No.6 seed Daria Kasatkina is also in the bottom quarter. Kasatkina will play a qualifier first up, with the winner of that match facing either Paula Badosa or Beatriz Haddad Maia in a tough second-rounder.

Meanwhile the qualifying rounds for the tournament are being played at the Khalifa International tennis complex.

21 year old, Warsaw born star World No. 1 and defending champion Iga Świątek of Poland leads the cast of 32 players for the singles and 16 pairs for the doubles events of the 21st edition of the WTA 500 tournament. Świątek defeated Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in straight sets last year to lift the golden falcon trophy for the first time in her career in Doha.