Barbora Krejcikova, the Roland Garros 2021 champion and one of the best doubles players on the circuit, was knocked out in the first round of the WTA 500 tournament in Doha.

Barbora KrejchikovaPhoto: Pete Staples/AP/Profimedia

Barbora Krejchikova, defeated by Veronika Kudermetova

After reaching the 29th place in the world ranking (a year ago she was on the 2nd place), Krejcikova lost to the Russian Veronika Kudermetova (11th WTA, 8th favorite) after three hours of play, the score 6-4, 3-6 , 7-6(5).

In the round of 16, Kudermetova will meet the winner of the match between American Sofia Kenin (210 WTA, Australian Open 2020 champion) and Russian Lyudmila Samsonova (15 WTA, Abu Dhabi finalist).

After the triumph at the Australian Open 2023, Barbora Krejchikova and Kateryna Sinyakova announced that they would give up the doubles for a while. Both said they would focus on the singles event.

The Qatar TotalEnergies Open (from Doha) takes place from February 13 to 18 on hard, is part of the WTA 500 category, has a total prize pool of $780,637, and the title champion is Iga Sviatek (title won in 2022).