Coco Gauff suffered an early exit at the WTA 1000 in Qatar, sinking to a straight-sets defeat to Marta Kostyuk in the second round after an error-strewn performance.
The world No 3 was beaten 6-2 7-5 in Doha in her first match since being knocked out of the Australian Open at the quarter-final stage by Paula Badosa last month.
Gauff – who made 39 unforced errors and hit only eight winners – handed Kostyuk two match points with successive double faults in the 12th game of the second set.
Gauff made 39 unforced errors during her straight-sets loss in Doha
The Ukrainian converted the second of those when her opponent slapped a backhand into the net and will now face Poland’s Magda Linette or Maddalena Frech in the last 16.
Kostyuk, the world No 21, said in her on-court interview: “Coco is an incredible fighter. We always have incredible matches.
“I tried to stick to what I had to do. I’m very happy it worked out in two sets.”
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Highlights as Iga Swiatek made light work of Maria Sakkari in Doha
World No 2 Iga Swiatek, who is chasing a fourth successive Qatar Open title, began her tournament with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Maria Sakkari on Monday.
World No 1 Aryna Sabalanka gets under way on Tuesday afternoon, against Emma Raducanu’s conqueror Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Alexandrova defeated Raducanu 6-3 7-5 on Sunday, subjecting the Brit to a third straight first-round loss and a fourth in a row in all tournaments following her third-round exit to Swiatek at the Australian Open.
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