The women\u2019s singles draw at the 2026 Qatar Open has been revealed, with world No 4 Amanda Anisimova looking to defend her title at the WTA 1000 event.<\/p>\n
Several big names have pulled out of the event, with world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka pulling out after the withdrawals of Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, and Naomi Osaka had already been confirmed<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, world No 2 and three-time Qatar Open champion Iga Swiatek<\/a> is still set to be the top seed, with world No 3 and new Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina<\/a> seeded second at the WTA 1000 event.<\/p>\n Top seed Swiatek has been drawn in the same half of the draw as third seed and reigning champion Anisimova<\/a>, meaning the two stars are projected to meet in the semi-final stage of the tournament.<\/p>\n The top eight seeds in the draw all receive an opening-round bye, with six-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek set to start her Doha campaign against either Janice Tjen or Sorana Cirstea.<\/p>\n The Pole is then projected to face 16th seed Elise Mertens in the third round, before an expected quarter-final against sixth seed Jasmine Paolini<\/a>.<\/p>\n World No 8 Paolini begins her campaign in round two against either Maria Sakkari or Zeynep Sonmez, and could face a significant challenge from ninth seed and rising star Linda Noskova in the third round.<\/p>\n Third seed Anisimova beat Jelena Ostapenko in the final to lift her first WTA 1000 title twelve months ago<\/a>, and will begin her campaign against either former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova or a qualifier.<\/p>\n Emma Raducanu gets significant rankings boost as she closes in on first WTA Tour title<\/a><\/p>\n Elena Rybakina\u2019s \u2018biggest edge\u2019 over Sabalenka, Swiatek and her other rivals revealed<\/a><\/p>\n The American could then face 14th seed Karolina Muchova in the third round, with rising star Alex Eala also in this section of the draw.<\/p>\n Eala will begin her campaign against a qualifier, and could then face Muchova in round two.<\/p>\n Should Anisimova reach the quarter-final, she is projected to face seventh seed Elina Svitolina<\/a>, who will be back in action after her run to the last four of the Australian Open.<\/p>\n The Ukrainian will face either Cristina Bucsa or compatriot Dayana Yastremska in round two and could then face 12th seed Emma Navarro in the third round, before potentially challenging Anisimova.<\/p>\n Should Swiatek and Anisimova hold their seedings and meet in the semi-final, it would be a battle between the last two women to lift the title in Doha.<\/p>\n The bottom half of the draw projects a semi-final against second seed Rybakina and fourth seed Coco Gauff<\/a>.<\/p>\n A hypothetical match-up between the two would be just their second-ever meeting, with Gauff beating Rybakina in their only previous contest at the 2022 Canadian Open.<\/p>\n In-form Rybakina is set to start her campaign against either Wang Xinyu or Emiliana Arango, and could then face 15th seed Diana Shnaider in round three.<\/p>\n The Kazakh is projected to face fifth seed Mirra Andreeva<\/a> in the quarter-final, with the 18-year-old having beaten Rybakina in both Dubai and Indian Wells last spring.<\/p>\n Andreeva\u2019s campaign will begin against either Magda Linette or a qualifier, before a potential Adelaide International final rematch versus 10th seed Victoria Mboko in the third round.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, fourth seed Gauff\u2019s quest for a maiden Qatar Open title will start against either Elsa Jacquemot or McCartney Kessler in round two, before she potentially faces 13th seed Liudmila Samsonova in round three.<\/p>\n Standing in the American\u2019s way of a projected semi-final versus Rybakina is eighth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova<\/a>, Gauff\u2019s projected quarter-final opponent.<\/p>\n Alexandrova faces a potentially challenging opener against either 2025 runner-up Ostapenko or former world No 2 Paula Badosa, and could then face either 11th seed Clara Tauson or Emma Raducanu in round three.<\/p>\n Tauson begins her campaign versus Katerina Siniakova while Raducanu will face a qualifier, with the two potentially set to meet in round two.<\/p>\n (1) Iga Swiatek vs (6) Paolini(6) Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: Prize money earned by Rybakina, Sabalenka, Swiatek, Gauff, Raducanu in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n The post WTA Qatar Open draw: Swiatek and Anisimova in same half, Rybakina could face Gauff<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The women\u2019s singles draw at the 2026 Qatar Open has been revealed, with world No 4 Amanda Anisimova looking to defend her title at the WTA 1000 event. Several big names have pulled out of the event, with world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka pulling out after the withdrawals of Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, and Naomi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n
Projected quarter-final line-up<\/h2>\n
\n(3) Amanda Anisimova vs (7) Elina Svitolina
\n(8) Ekaterina Alexandrova vs (4) Coco Gauff
\n(5) Mirra Andreeva vs (2) Elena Rybakina<\/p>\n