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Svitolina given Qatar Open wild card entry

The Premier WTA Tour event will be held at the hard courts of Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha from February 11 to 16.

Elina Svitolina

Bengaluru/Doha February 7: World No.7 Elina Svitolina, who lost to eventual champion Naomi Osaka in the Australian Open quarterfinal, has been given a wild card entry for the Qatar Total Open 2019.

The Premier WTA Tour event will be held at the hard courts of Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha from February 11 to 16.

The 24-year-old Ukraine player will be joined by a host of other top players like former world No.1 and top seed Simona Halep, three-time Grand Slam champion and 2014 finalist Angelique Kerber and 2017 champion Karolina Pliskova.

Newly crowned world No.1 Osaka was also due to play, but pulled out citing a back injury

Besides Svitolina, Caroline Wozniacki, Tunisia's Ons Jabeur and Fatima Al Nabhani of Oman will also be featuring in the main draw as wild card entrants.

Currently ranked 56, the 24-year-old Jabeur, a winner of seven singles on the ITF Women's Circuit, is one of the best-known Arab players on the WTA Tour. She won the girls singles title of the 2011 French Open having already reached the final of the same event the previous year.

Nabhani has a win-loss record of 13-7 playing for Oman at the Fed Cup. The 27-year-old has 10 ITF career titles under her belt and she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 362 on October 4, 2010.

Held since 2001, the Qatar Total Open has grown to become one of the biggest WTA Tour events in the region and it has consistently featured the world's top ten players on a regular basis.

The 2018 edition was won by Australian Open runner-up Petra Kvitova, who beat Garbine Muguruza in a thrilling three-setter in the final.

Story first published: Thursday, February 7, 2019, 11:53 [IST]
Other articles published on Feb 7, 2019