With world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Iga Swiatek withdrawing from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Elena Rybakina inherits the top seed and, along with the other top eight seeds, receives a second-round bye. Yet Coco Gauff, seeded third, presents a formidable challenge. The American now faces intense pressure as she navigates her Middle East campaign.

After receiving a first-round bye, Coco Gauff will face either Jelena Ostapenko, a Qatar semi-finalist, or Anna Kalinskaya, who reached this week’s quarterfinal, in the second round.

If she progresses, 14th seed Emma Navarro could be a potential third-round opponent. The path remains challenging, with top players waiting in the draw.

A quarterfinal clash with Jasmine Paolini is possible. However, Paolini would likely need to get past Alex Eala, who plays a qualifier or lucky loser, and 10th seed Linda Noskova to reach the last eight.

If Coco Gauff defeats Jasmine Paolini, she is likely to face Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina in the semifinals. Coco holds a 1-0 head-to-head record against Rybakina.

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Their only previous encounter was at the 2022 Canada Open, where Coco won a tight three-set match. That victory gives her confidence going into another high-stakes clash.

Although Coco did not perform well in Doha this week, she will still gain ranking points. This will allow her to return as the top-ranked American female tennis player on Monday.

Following her Australian Open quarterfinal exit, Coco had dropped two ranking spots, falling to No. 5 in the world. The Doha results now help her climb back.

Amanda Anisimova began the WTA 1000 season ranked No. 4. Last year, she was Doha’s defending champion and had many points to protect.

However, Anisimova retired in the second round of the Qatar Open, causing her to drop two spots in the live rankings. The defending champion’s early exit allowed Gauff to move back into the top four.

Coco, who also had a first-round bye in Doha, suffered a surprise second-round loss to Elisabetta Cocciaretto. Despite the defeat, she has taken key notes from Doha as she gears up for yet another Middle East Masters swing.

Coco Gauff shares key lessons from early Qatar exit

After a disappointing Australian Open, Coco Gauff had hoped to get her season back on track in Doha.

However, things did not go as planned. She lost to lucky loser Elisabetta Cocciaretto. This marked her second early exit in a row.

Before Doha, Gauff had won all six sets she played against Cocciaretto. Yet in Qatar, she fell 6-4, 6-2 to the world number 57.

Despite the loss, Gauff told reporters she was not too discouraged. She noted that her results during last year’s Middle Eastern swing were also not strong.

“I mean, I was really confident to start the year off, so I don’t really know if it’s that,” Coco said. “Today I was feeling good going into the match, and confident. I don’t know, obviously my last match in Australia wasn’t good, and then today wasn’t good either. I think I am just going to try to learn from it, and hopefully do better in Dubai.”

Gauff admitted there were a few positives from the Doha loss. But she felt encouraged by how her serve performed during the match.

Her serve has been an issue in recent seasons. The two-time Grand Slam champion said she hit fewer double faults this time, which gave her some confidence.

“I thought my serve was pretty good today. I got broken a lot, but I feel like that was more my ground strokes than my serve. Whereas before, I felt like it was a lot to do with my serve. So that’s really the only positive I think I can take from today,” Gauff stated.

She will look to build on this improvement at the Dubai Tennis Championships, starting Sunday, 15 February. With a tough draw looming, the question remains: can Coco go deep in Dubai and stabilize her Middle East swing?