Qatar Open: Two-time defending champion Swiatek advances to last 16

Pole Iga Swiatek, the top seed, reached the last 16 of the Qatar Open by winning against Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 6-1 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha on Monday evening.

“For sure I’m happy with my performance, and I feel like it was a really solid match,” the world No 1 said afterwards. “I kind of felt like I was able to keep my focus from the beginning till the end. Then, you know, after every game I was more confident and I could even, you know, relax a little bit more at the end. So I’m happy that I just played solid.”

Swiatek, ranked No 1, will face the winner of the match between qualifier Erika Andreeva and No 14 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova next.

In the previous round of the Qatar tournament, Cirstea, ranked No 22, defeated American Sloane Stephens (6-3, 6-2).

She has still never taken a set against a world No 1 in fourth matches.

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Doha WTA 1000, other second-round results (Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, hard, USD 3.211.715, most recent results first):

• Lin Zhu vs. Elena Rybakina
• Petra Martic vs. Naomi Osaka
• Ons Jabeur vs. Lesia Tsurenko
• Katerina Siniakova vs. Coco Gauff
• Danielle Collins vs. Marie Bouzkova
• Anhelina Kalinina vs. Jelena Ostapenko
• Erika Andreeva vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Emma Navarro vs. Elise Mertens
• Linda Noskova vs. Maria Sakkari
• Xinyu Wang vs. Victoria Azarenka
• Paula Badosa vs. Leylah Fernandez
• Marta Kostyuk vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
• Qinwen Zheng vs. Magda Linette
• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Greet Minnen