Both men’s and women’s tennis this year in Doha has seen numerous upsets and stirs, making way for open tournaments.
Novak Djokovic’s shocking defeat against Matteo Berrettini, which eliminated him from the Qatar ExxonMobil Open’s first round was unco to most.
Not only was Djokovic — regarded by many as the greatest player ever with 24 Grand Slams and an Olympic medal — vying for his 100th career title but Tuesday’s baffling was his first loss ever against the Italian.
To make things worse, he lost in straight sets, the first on a tight tie-breaker and the following on a feeble note, something that Djokovic later admitted to.
“I was outplayed by just a better player today,” the 37-year-old said in the post-match press conference. “He was just the better player. I think he played a master-class match, to be honest, tactically, and served very well, so just a very deserved win from his side.”
While Djokovic’s recent injury as well as growing age contributed to causing the upset, it was not the only stunning dispatch out of the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
Instead, upsets and the change of guards have been a mainstay in Qatar this year, starting with the women’s tournament, the Qatar TotalEnergies Open.
Tuesday saw a continuation of that streak with one of the top seeds and tournament favourites Stefanos Tsitsipas going out to unseeded Hamad Medjedovic, who finished the game on one leg due to an on-game injury. Defending champion Karen Kachanov was shown the exit door in the first round too, by 2023 Qatar Exxonmobil Open title winner Daniil Medvedev.
The uncertainty and unpredictability in the Qatar Open — the men’s tournament of which got an upgrade to ATP 500 just this year — is accentuated by fine margins that exist in three-set games, according to Gabriel Morariu, who has been covering the sport for more than a decade. In short, it becomes a game of fine margin and more upsets come to fruition.
WTA Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2025 was a similar story
It was just a week before the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, that Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek posed with the golden falcon trophy on a breezy evening in Lusail. The reigning top two in women’s tennis were overwhelming favourites coming to Qatar and many believed one of them would lift the title after a week.
Tennis had other plans, however. Forget winning, neither of Belarusian Sabalenka, the top seed, nor Swiatek were competing in the final. Instead, Doha had found an unlikely, yet deserving, winner in 23-year-old Amanda Anisimova.
The American rose to the occasion on a rainy night to power through Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 to become the lowest-ranked player ever to win the title.
The Latvian had qualified for the final after causing perhaps the biggest stir just a day earlier. Her semi-final win saw a constant fall apart: Iga Swiatek suffered her first loss in Doha since 2021, leaving hopes of a fourth consecutive title in tatters.
Broadly, both these instances served as a blueprint of how unpredictable, open and spontaneous things had been not just in Doha, but also in the broader sphere of women’s tennis.
Inconsistency prevails at the highest level of women’s tennis, which was reflected in Doha, explained Moreiru. A tightrope exists, causing constant shuffle in the rankings and precisely because of the absence of a dominant cast like the men’s category (alluding to the rise of Jannick Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and a few frequently winning top seeds).
The names of Swiatek, Sabalenka, and Kazakstan’s Elena Rybakina frequently come up among the most dominant, yet the list of recent tournament winners has a healthy variance.
One has to trace back to Serena Williams, who rested her racket more than two years ago, to find the sport’s last serial winner, based on the number of titles and the frequency at which they were won.
More newcomers are making it to the finals of four major tournaments, called the Grand Slams, in the women’s calendar than before, according to Bloomberg. In other words, more upsets have happened in women’s tennis in recent times.
Similar was the case in Qatar too as Anisimova triumphed in just her second WTA tour finale to clinch her first 1000-pointer.
None of the top seeds Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, China’s Olympic Gold winner Zheng Qinwen, U.S.’s Coco Gauff and Sabalenka, make it past the quarterfinals. Only Swiatek did, to lose in the semis.
All of them had dominated the advertising hoardings at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, alongside Ons Jabeur, who enjoyed an ardent Tunisian support.
The only success among the pack came in the form of Paolini’s doubles title win alongside fellow Italian Sara Errani, as Jabeur too crashed out in the quarterfinals against eventual finalist Ostapenko of Latvia.
Similar could be the case in the men’s edition too. With headliner Jannick Sinner handed a ban on the eve of the tournament, only two of those featured in the big hoarding remain — Alcaraz and Medvedev. Both will have to survive the tides of change en route to the Golden Falcon trophy.
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