The cult stadium spokesman Andy Taylor, otherwise used as a verbal whip at the US Open, had announced the crowd-puller at the Premier 5 tournament in Doha with a long drawn-out “Maaaaariiia Shaaaaarapooovaaaaa”.
The Russian also offered the audience a long night session, but in the end the wildcard holder was defeated by Monica Niculescu in 2:39 hours with 6:4,4:6,3:6.
It is symptomatic that Sharapova celebrated her 52nd birthday at the Romanian’s first match point, which Andrea Petkovic eliminated in the last qualifying round on Sunday. unenforced error. It was the 30-year-old’s first match since their third round defeat at the Australian Open in Melbourne against Angelique Kerber (1-6,3-6). Sharapova crept after disappointment with hanging head from the Centre Court of the Khalifa International Tennis Complex. Next stop is Dubai next week.
This means that the dream of an explosive round of sixteen between Sharapova and top seeded Australian Open winner Caroline Wozniacki also shattered at the top-class Premier 5 tournament in Qatar, which features nine top ten players, among others. Both had given each other a verbal skirmish at the US Open 2017. The Dane had criticized that Sharapova was always allowed to play in the big Arthur Ashe Stadium, while she was scheduled for smaller courts.
Sharapova was back at the Qatar Total Open for the first time in five years. She had won the Tournament on the peninsula on the Persian Gulf at the age of 17 in 2005 and repeated her tournament victory in 2008. This year, she would have won the “Diamond Ball”Trophy for the title number three, as Tariq Zeinal, the general secretary of the Qatar Tennis Association, revealed in the “Qatar Tribune”. The winner of Doha will usually receive a golden falcon in the form of a trophy.
But against Niculescu, the woman with such an unpleasant slice forehand, Sharapova played faulty and missed a lot of opportunities. Only six out of 15 break chances could the world rankings-41. She made eleven double mistakes – and served her serve a total of seven times. The dissatisfaction was clearly evident in the 1.88 metre tall superstar from California.
On Tuesday, Fed Cup heroine Tatjana Maria (Bad Saulgau) and Carina Witthöft (Hamburg) will play against each other in round one. The ninth seeded Julia Görges (Bad Oldesloe) gets it in the Night Session with the Czech left-handed Lucie Safarova to do.
Angelique Kerber (Kiel/No. 9) has a walk-through in the first round and will play against the winner of the duel between Samantha Stosur (Australia) and Irina-Camelia Begu (Romania) on Wednesday.
Doha was the first country in the Middle East to host a women’s tennis tournament in 2001 and we are proud of it,”said Zeinal.