Coco Gauff suffered an early exit on the WTA 1000 in Qatar, sinking to a straight-sets defeat to Marta Kostyuk within the second spherical after an error-strewn efficiency.
The world No 3 was crushed 6-2 7-5 in Doha in her first match since being knocked out of the Australian Open on the quarter-final stage by Paula Badosa final month.
Gauff – who made 39 unforced errors and hit solely eight winners – handed Kostyuk two match factors with successive double faults within the twelfth recreation of the second set.
The Ukrainian transformed the second of these when her opponent slapped a backhand into the online and can now face Poland’s Magda Linette or Maddalena Frech within the final 16.
Kostyuk, the world No 21, stated in her on-court interview: “Coco is an unbelievable fighter. We all the time have unbelievable matches.
“I tried to stick to what I had to do. I’m very happy it worked out in two sets.”
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Highlights as Iga Swiatek made mild work of Maria Sakkari in Doha
World No 2 Iga Swiatek, who’s chasing a fourth successive Qatar Open title, started her event with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Maria Sakkari on Monday.
World No 1 Aryna Sabalanka will get below means on Tuesday afternoon, towards Emma Raducanu’s conqueror Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Alexandrova defeated Raducanu 6-3 7-5 on Sunday, subjecting the Brit to a 3rd straight first-round loss and a fourth in a row in all tournaments following her third-round exit to Swiatek on the Australian Open.
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