Coco Gauff suffered a surprising early exit from the Qatar Open on Tuesday, falling in straight sets to Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk. Meanwhile, Elena Rybakina smoothly advanced to the last 16.
Gauff, the former US Open champion, squandered a solid lead in the second set as Kostyuk secured a 6-2, 7-5 win and will now face the winner of the all-Polish third-round clash between Magda Linette and Magdalena Frech.
Playing her first match since her quarter-final loss to Paula Badosa at the Australian Open on January 21, Gauff struggled with her serve, hitting seven double-faults in a lacklustre performance. She got off to a poor start, falling behind 4-1 after losing her serve twice.
Kostyuk broke Gauff again in the eighth game, securing the first set in just 30 minutes.
Gauff rallied in the second set, breaking Kostyuk to lead 4-2 and seemed to be finding her rhythm. However, Kostyuk capitalized on Gauff’s mistakes, eventually breaking the American for the fifth time after Gauff hit two double faults.
“The double faults made it easier for me… I’m very happy that it ended in two sets,” Kostyuk said after the match.
Rybakina, the fifth seed, advanced comfortably after defeating Payton Stearns 6-2, 6-4 in her opening match. Despite a late wobble, Rybakina cruised through to set up a third-round clash with either Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva or Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova.
Although Rybakina led 5-0 in the second set and missed three match points to win it 6-0, she struggled for a moment as Stearns fought back to bring the set to 5-4. However, the former Wimbledon champion closed it out on her fifth match point.
Jasmine Paolini, last year’s French Open and Wimbledon runner-up, also progressed with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Caroline Garcia.
Czech teen Linda Noskova earned a spot in the last 16 with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva and will next face three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek.
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