Danger lurks at the first hurdle for almost every high seed in the 2025 Qatar TotalEnergies Open draw. The Top 8 seeds all have first-round byes, and all but one potentially faces a former Top 20 opponent in the second round.
No. 1 seed and 2020 titlist Aryna Sabalenka will open against either former US Open champion Emma Raducanu, competing as a wild card, or freshly crowned Linz winner Ekaterina Alexandrova. No. 2 Iga Swiatek, bidding for a historic fourth Doha title in a row, will start against either former No. 3 Maria Sakkari or a qualifier.
No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula faces the winner of a first-round matchup between former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova and Elina Svitolina. And No. 7 seed Zheng Qinwen will begin her campaign against either three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur or McCartney Kessler, who has won her first two Hologic WTA Tour titles in the past seven months.
Meanwhile, No. 3 Coco Gauff will start against either Marta Kostyuk or wild card Zeynep Sonmez, No. 4 Jasmine Paolini will take on either former WTA Finals champion Caroline Garcia (competing as a wild card) or Yuan Yue, and No. 8 Emma Navarro will open against either former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez or a qualifier.
No. 5 Elena Rybakina is the only Top 8 seed who cannot start against a former Top 20 player -- though neither Dayana Yastremska, whose career high is No. 21 and who is fresh off the Linz final, nor Peyton Stearns are soft openers for last year's runner-up.
Click here to view the full draw.
Here is the full draw breakdown by quarter:
First quarter
The first-round match between Vondrousova and Svitolina, with the winner to face Pegula, stands out. The pair's head-to-head is all square at three wins apiece, but Vondrousova has taken the last three dating back to 2020, including a 6-3, 6-3 victory in the 2023 Wimbledon semifinals en route to her first Grand Slam crown. Both are in promising form: Svitolina reached her 12th major quarterfinal at the Australian Open, while Vondrousova made this week's Abu Dhabi quarterfinals in the second tournament of her comeback from shoulder surgery.
Pegula leads her head-to-head with Svitolina 4-2, but the Ukrainian won both their most recent meeting (at last year's Paris Olympic Games) and their only previous Middle East encounter (at Abu Dhabi 2021). Vondrousova won her only prior meeting with Pegula, also en route to her Wimbledon title in 2023.
Raducanu's first-round clash with Alexandrova will be a rematch of their Australian Open first round, won by Raducanu 7-6(4), 7-6(2). Sabalenka defeated Raducanu 6-3, 7-5 in their only previous meeting (at Indian Wells last year), and holds a 4-3 record against Alexandrova.
Other notable names in the first quarter include the resurgent Clara Tauson, whose 10-2 record in 2025 so far includes her third career title in Auckland. She opens against Elise Mertens, who also has a 10-2 season record including a title (in Singapore); the winner could face No. 14 seed Anna Kalinskaya, with Sabalenka potentially awaiting in the third round. Pegula's projected third-round opponent is No. 10 seed Daria Kasatkina.
First rounds to watch: [WC] Emma Raducanu vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova, Elise Mertens vs. Clara Tauson, Marketa Vondrousova vs. Elina Svitolina
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Second quarter
Two-time Doha champion Victoria Azarenka's opener against Amanda Anisimova is the first round to circle, with the winner facing either No. 9 seed Paula Badosa or Katerina Siniakova. Whoever emerges from that section could then meet either Navarro or Fernandez in the third round.
Should Fernandez defeat a qualifier in her opener, her second round against Navarro will be a rematch of the 2019 Roland Garros junior final. Fernandez won that 6-3, 6-2, and has also won two of their three pro meetings to date.
Gauff leads the second quarter, and the American's projected third-round opponent is No. 13 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia. Should Gauff meet either Navarro or Badosa in the quarterfinals, it will be an opportunity for revenge: Navarro ousted her from both Wimbledon and the US Open last year, while Badosa upset her in the Australian Open quarterfinals last month.
First rounds to watch: Magdalena Frech vs. [13] Beatriz Haddad Maia, [9] Paula Badosa vs. Katerina Siniakova, Amanda Anisimova vs. Victoria Azarenka
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Third quarter
Paolini and Zheng head the third quarter, but both have a number of significant obstacles in their path before a projected quarterfinal meeting. If Paolini gets past Garcia or Yuan, she could face either No. 16 seed Liudmila Samsonova or 2016 finalist Jelena Ostapenko in the third round.
Both Samsonova and Ostapenko are coming off first-round losses in Abu Dhabi, and Ostapenko's ranking has fallen out of the Top 30 for the first time since 2021 this week, but the power both possess makes them perennial dangers. Samsonova has won both of her previous meetings with Paolini, while the Italian has split two encounters with Ostapenko.
Zheng, who has defeated Jabeur in both of their previous matches, could need to do so again to set up a projected third round against No. 11 seed Diana Shnaider, whom she edged in last October's Tokyo semifinals. Shnaider opens against a qualifier, but could face a stern second-round test of her own: either fellow 20-year-old Ashlyn Krueger, currently in the Abu Dhabi semifinals, or former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.
First rounds to watch: McCartney Kessler vs. Ons Jabeur, Ashlyn Krueger vs. [WC] Sofia Kenin, Yuan Yue vs. [WC] Caroline Garcia
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Fourth quarter
Three-time defending champion Swiatek has been utterly dominant in Doha. Her overall record at the tournament is 13-1, with her only loss coming to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2020 second round. Since then, she's rattled off 12 victories in a row for three consecutive titles. Indeed, Swiatek is also on a 23-set winning streak here: since her 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 defeat of Viktorija Golubic in her 2022 opener, she has not dropped a set, with her opposition including Sabalenka, Rybakina and Pegula.
Should Swiatek maintain this dominance to lift a fourth straight Doha trophy, it would be the first time a player has won four titles in a row at any WTA tournament since Caroline Wozniacki captured New Haven every year between 2008-11.
Swiatek's head-to-head against Sakkari is all square at three wins apiece, but she has not lost to the Greek player since 2021. Swiatek has conceded just 16 games to Sakkari across their last three meetings.
The projected quarterfinal between Swiatek and Rybakina would be a rematch of last year's final, won by Swiatek 7-6(8), 6-2. Rybakina leads their overall head-to-head 5-4, but Swiatek won their most recent encounter 7-6(5), 6-4 at last month's United Cup.
Obstacles to that marquee quarterfinal include the 17-year-old No. 12 seed Mirra Andreeva, who is Rybakina's projected third-round opponent. In their only previous meeting, Rybakina narrowly escaped the young prodigy 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 at Beijing 2023. Meanwhile, Swiatek could face either No. 15 seed Donna Vekic, Yulia Putintseva or Linda Noskova, who memorably ousted her from the 2024 Australian Open, in the third round.
First rounds to watch: Dayana Yastremska vs. Peyton Stearns, Anhelina Kalinina vs. Rebecca Sramkova, [15] Donna Vekic vs. Linda Noskova
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