Coco Gauff underwent an early surprise outing of the Qatar Open Tuesday with a direct defeat by Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, while Elena Rybakina placed the last 16.
The former champion of the United States Open Gauff has shown a healthy advantage in the second set while Kostyuk sealed a victory of 6-2, 7-5 and a third-round meeting with the winner of equality Completely Polish between Magda Linette and Magdalena Frech.
Gauff, playing for the first time since the defeat in the quarter -final of January 21 against Paula Badosa at Australian Open, served seven double faults in an erratic display.
The American took a terrible start, sliding 4-1 behind after dropping his service twice.
Gauff was again broken in the eighth game while Kostyuk obtained the first set in just half an hour.
The world number three retaliated with a break en route to a 4-2 advance in the second set as it was starting to find its pace.
But Kostyuk fought, taking advantage of a Gauff performance widespread by errors that ended when she served two double faults to be broken for the fifth time.
“The double faults were easier for me … I am very happy that it ended in two sets,” Kostyuk told BeIN Sports.
Rybakina, who lost against the possible winner Belinda Bencic in the semi-finals of Abu Dhabi last week, saw Payton Stearns in his opening match.
The fifth seeded won a 6-2, 6-4 victory despite a late borderer to establish third round equality against the Russian adolescent Mirra Andreeva or Slovakia Rebecca Sramkova.
Rybakina led 5-0 in the second set, but missed three match points to take him 6-0, then collapsed while Stearns dragged the reverse.
The former Wimbledon champion overcome the line on his fifth match point.
Jasmine Paolini, the French Open of last year and the Wimbledon finalist, also had a start of the campaign with a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Caroline Garcia in the second round.
The young Czech Linda Noskova won a draw in the last game against the triple reigning champion IGA Swiatek with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Yulia Putinteva of Kazakhstan.
JC / IWD
