Newly-crowned Australian Open champion Carlos Alcaraz has been handed a fairly comfortable draw at the Qatar Open while Jannik Sinner could face Jakub Mensik and Alexander Bublik.
Fresh from becoming the youngest player to complete the Career Grand Slam by winning the hard-court at Melbourne Park, Alcaraz will look to continue his winning streak at the ATP 500 event
The seven-time major champion will kick off his campaign against French No 1 Arthur Rinderknech in what will be a fifth career meeting between the pair with the Spaniard victorious in all four previous encounters, including in the round of 16 during his title run at the US Open last September.
The winner of that clash will take on either Valentin Royer or a qualifier in the second round while seventh seed Karen Khachanov is a projected quarter-final opponent.
Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev and defending champion Andrey Rublev will likely battle it out for a semi-final spot in the bottom part of the top half of the draw.
2023 champion Medvedev faces Shang Juncheng first up while he could take on the out-of-sorts Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round before a possible showdown with two-time Doha winner Rublev, who starts his campaign against Jesper de Jong.
World No 2 Sinner is certainly in the tougher half of the draw as he will face Czech world No 31 Tomas Machac in the first round before a possible clash against Alexei Popyrin or wildcard Mubarak Al-Harrasi.
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The four-time Grand Slam winner is projected to meet sixth seed Mensik, who takes on a qualifier first up, in the quarter-final and third seed Bublik in the semi-final.
Mensik, of course, reached the quarter-final of the Australian Open and was expected to give Novak Djokovic a big challenge, but the Czech was unable to take to court as he withdrew due to an abdominal injury.
Djokovic – who was due to be the third seed in Doha before withdrawing from the tournament this week – received a walkover in Melbourne and then defeated Sinner in the semi-final before losing the final against Alcaraz.
Bublik, meanwhile, will also open against a qualifier while he could meet Arthur Fils in the third round and eighth seed Jiri Lehecka in the quarter-final.
Projected Quarter-Finals:
Alcaraz v Khachanov
Medvedev v Rublev
Lehecka v Bublik
Mensik v Sinner
Rublev defeated Jack Draper in three sets in the 2025 Qatar Open with Alcaraz losing in the quarter-final against Lehecka. Sinner did not compete as he was completing his three-month ban following his positive doping tests in March 2024.
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