(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) In the presence of HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar Total Open kicked off on Monday at Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha.
With a total prize money of $ 2,500,000, the tournament brings the world's greatest female tennis players to Doha from February 10-16, 201
Venus Williams served up a storm in her first match of the Qatar Total Open, beating Petra Martic in straight sets to set up a second round encounter with Petra Kvitov
Leading 4-0 in the first set, Williams let one service game go - she fell behind 15-40 and Martic converted - but the former World No.1 held all seven of her other service games easily, at the loss of just six points in fact, and she never faced another break point en route to a 62 62 triump
Awaiting Williams in the next round is the No.3 seed, Petra Kvitova, who received a first round bye this wee
Kvitova leads Williams in their head-to-head series, 2-1, but all three meetings have gone to three sets - and their last encounter, at Tokyo last September, went to a third set tie-brea
As Nadia Petrova (Russia) has qualified for the main draw of the Qatar Total Open, she is in contention to win the Diamond Ball trophy, given to a player who wins the event three time
Petrova won the Qatar Total Open title twice in the same year, in two different cities. In 2006, Petrova won the Doha event by defeating France's Amelie Mauresmo in the final 6-3, 7-
Three months later, Petrova played in the Berlin, Germany tournament also the Qatar Total Open (owned by the Qatar Tennis Federation) and won the title with her 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over Justine Henin of Belgium
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