Katerina Siniakova (right, shaking hands with Coco Gauff) is a former world number one women's doubles player
American teenager Coco Gauff suffered a shock defeat by Katerina Siniakova in the second round at the Qatar Open.
World number three Gauff lost six games in a row in the second set and was beaten 6-2 6-4 by Czech Siniakova.
The 19-year-old Gauff was making her first appearance since an Australian Open semi-final loss to Aryna Sabalenka last month.
Despite being seeded second in Doha, Gauff could not find her usual rhythm against 27-year-old Siniakova.
After losing the opening set, last year’s US Open champion regained her composure to race into a 4-0 lead in the second set.
But Siniakova, who is a seven-time Grand Slam champion in women’s doubles, hit back spectacularly to claim one of the biggest victories of her singles career.
Also on Tuesday, Naomi Osaka booked her place in the last 16 with a straight-set victory against Croatia’s Petra Martic.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka, who is returning to the sport after giving birth to her first child in July, won her second-round match 6-3 7-6 (11-9).
Unseeded Osaka, 26, missed a chance in the second set to take the match at 5-4 and then found herself 4-0 down at the start of the tie-break.
But the Japanese player rallied to save four set points before 33-year-old Martic double-faulted on match point.
Elsewhere in the second round, fourth seed Ons Jabeur was defeated 6-3 6-2 by Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko, while Australian Open runner-up Zheng Qinwen of China beat Poland’s Magda Linette 6-2 2-6 6-3.
Williams and Wozniacki handed Indian Wells wild cards
Former Grand Slam champions Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki have received wild cards to play in the Indian Wells tournament, which takes place from 6-17 March.
American Williams has not played since she was easily beaten by qualifier Greet Minnen at the first round of the US Open on 30 August.
The 43-year-old former world number one last appeared at Indian Wells in 2019, when she reached the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s Wozniacki made her tennis comeback in 2023 after a three-year break following the births of her two children.
The 33-year-old reached the fourth round of the US Open, but lost to eventual champion Gauff, and made it to the second round of the Australian Open in January.
Wozniacki lifted the title at Indian Wells in 2011 but she has not featured in the tournament in California for the past five years.
