Doha day 2: Forced to appear

2nd round:

[2] Serena Williams (USA) d Daria Gavrilova (RUS) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 1 |
[3] Maria Sharapova (RUS) d Caroline Garcia (FRA) | 6 - 3 | 6 - 2 |
Mona Barthel (GER) d [5] Angelique Kerber (GER) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 2 |

1st round:

Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) d Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 2 |
[11] Nadia Petrova (RUS) d Andrea Hlavackova (CZE) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 3 |
Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) d Tadeja Majeric (SLO) | 6 - 4 | 6 - 4 |
[9] Marion Bartoli (FRA) d Francesca Schiavone (ITA) | 7 - 6 (5) | 6 - 3 |
Klara Zakopalova (CZE) d Varvara Lepchenko (USA) | 7 - 6 (8) | 3 - 0 |
[16] Sloane Stephens (USA) d Anna Tatishvili (GEO) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 2 |
Sorana Cirstea (ROU) d Ons Jabeur (TUN) | 2 - 6 | 6 - 3 | 6 - 0 |
Monica Niculescu (ROU) d Jelena Jankovic (SRB) | 6 - 4 | 6 - 1 |
[15] Roberta Vinci (ITA) d Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) | 6 - 2 | 2 - 1 |
Urszula Radwanska (POL) d Nadiya Kichenok (UKR) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 0 |
Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) d Laura Robson (GBR) | 6 - 4 | 6 - 1 |
Ekaterina Bychkova (RUS) d [12] Maria Kirilenko (RUS) | 3 - 0 |
Timea Babos (HUN) d Heidi El Tabakh (CAN) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 3 |
Romina Oprandi (SUI) d Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) | 7 - 6 (2) | 7 - 5 |
[17] Lucie Safarova (CZE) d Eleni Daniilidou (GRE) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 3 |
Christina McHale (USA) d Vera Dushevina (RUS) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 2 |

Upset of the day:

Mona Barthel (GER) d [5] Angelique Kerber (GER) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 2 |

It seems that Angelique Kerber is not fully healed as she falls easily to Mona Barthel. Looking listless and lethargic, you have to question if Kerber is forced to participate in this event. Barthel was ruthless, punishing anything short and playing a very clean match with positive statistics. If you discount her early crash in Melbourne, Mona is really having a great year. Let's hope she continues her winning ways and not lose steam like last year.

Monica Niculescu (ROU) d Jelena Jankovic (SRB) | 6 - 4 | 6 - 1 | 

Monica Niculescu has never won a set off Jelena Jankovic in their last 5 meetings. This just shows how far Jankovic has fallen. Jelena might not be fully healed from her torn abdominal injury, making her another player who is possibly forced to show up. Not too sure about this rule but it will really be a shame if WTA is twisting the players' arms just to make them appear. Hopefully Jankovic recovers and show what she's really capable of. If not, I suspect she will announce her retirement soon.

Ekaterina Bychkova (RUS) d [12] Maria Kirilenko (RUS) | 3 - 0 | 

Another player who shouldn't be here but made her appearance anyway. Kirilenko was already sick in the previous week's Fed Cup tie in Moscow but flew all the way to Doha to retire anyway. Just too many incidents to make this a coincidence. These 3 players, together with a battered Hsieh, are probably coerced into appearing or suffer having a 0 in their points. WTA needs to look into this as I would rather see healthy lucky losers play rather than top players who just can't be bothered.