13th February, 2013
Both Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens won their games yesterday at the ongoing Qatar Open to ease into the next round of the competition holding in Doha.
Stephens is hopeful she can reach the levels of performance in Qatar as she did on her way to the semi-final of the Australian Open.
The American youngster beat Anna Tatishvili 6-2 6-2 in a little over an hour to set up a clash with Czech competitor Klara Zakopalova in the third round.
“I felt good,” said the 16th seed on the WTA website. “I hadn’t played since Melbourne, so coming out and playing a good player today, I just had to play my game. I just had to play solid. And that’s what I’ll try and do for the rest of the tournament.”
Number two seed Serena qualified for round three after she won 6-2 6-1 against Daria Gavrilova and she is joined by third seed Maria Sharapova, who beat qualifier Carolina Garcia 6-3 6-2.
Other winners in the first round were Ekaterina Makarova, Zakopalova, Hsieh Su-Wei, Sorana Cirstea, Urszula Radwanska, Christina McHale, Monica Niculescu, Romina Oprandi, Daniela Hantuchova and Timea Babos.