Brady and Bertens fall in Doha

Day of surprises this Monday at the WTA 500 in Doha. Both the American Jennifer Brady and the Dutch Kiki Bertens, two of the main contenders for the title, fell defeated in the first round.

Brady, the number 13 in the world, did not last an hour against the 24, the Estonian Annett Kontaveit, who took the game with a resounding 6-1, 6-2. Nor did it do much better Bertens, the 11th on the list, who said goodbye in 57 minutes to another Baltic, the Latvian Ostapenko, with a donut included: 6-0 and 6-2. Ostapenko will face the winner of the match between Wang and Pegula in the second round.

Among the favorites, the German Kerber, who had an affordable rival in the Turkish Buyukakcay, did meet 179 of the ranking, which she defeated in one hour and 33 minutes by 6-4 and 6-2. Kontaveit will be his next rival. The number 25 of the WTA, the Greek Maria Sakkari, defeated the Egyptian Sherif (114), 6-0 and 6-3 in just over an hour. Nor failed the Belarusian Azarenka, 14th in the world, who beat the Russian Kuznetsova in one hour and 52 minutes (6-2 and 6-3) to meet with Rybakina or Siegemund.