Maria Playing In Doha

The draw for the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Qatar has been released and Maria is the 4th seed and has a bye in the 1st round. In the 2nd round Maria will play either Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine or Eleni Daniilidou of Greece. Maria has played Daniilidou 5 times before and leads the series 5-0 and has never played the younger Bondarenko sister before. This match will be played on either Tuesday or Wednesday. The 1st seed Maria can meet is #14 seed Amelie Mauresmo of France in the 3rd round and is seeded to meet another French player Marion Bartoli in the quarters. Maria is projected to meet #1 seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the semis (and Maria has won the last 2 matches). Svetlana Kuznetsova, Jelena Jankovic and Anna Chakvetadze round off the draw in the bottom half. Doha is played on rebound ace and is a tier 1 with prize money of $2,500,000 which is one of the largest money prizes in WTA tournaments this year. The following week, Maria will play Dubai which will culminate her middle eastern tour. Maria is unbeaten in Doha as she won here in her only appearance in 2005 when it was a tier 2 event. I will have coverage but not day to day scores and posts. Good Luck Maria!