AMERICAN qualifier Alycia Parks caused a huge boilover against 11th seed Diana Shnaider to reach the second round of the 2025 Qatar Open overnight. The hard-hitting but often inconsistent Parks smashed her way to victory as one of three unseeded players to knock off seeded opponents.
Parks won 6-4 7-6 in 95 minutes, blowing her Russian opponent off the court. She hit 32 winners to four and had 23 more unforced errors in the victory, breaking four times to three and just getting home in a second set tiebreaker. Parks’ ability to break in the penultimate game of the first set secured that set, though Shnaider had two set points in the second set, only for Parks to swat them away at 4-5 down.
The American won 10 consecutive points to take it to a tiebreaker where she dominated 7-2, meaning she had won 17 of the last 19 points for the match. Parks produced seven aces and won 76 per cent of her first serve points, as well as 54 per cent of her second serve points to secure the all-important victory and move through to the Round of 32.
Parks was not the only qualifier to advance against a seed, with Spain’s Cristina Bucsa coming from a set down to win against 14th seed Anna Kalinskaya 6-7 7-5 6-4, while Poland’s Magdalena Frech ground past Brazilian 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, 6-4 3-6 6-2. The two remaining seeds in Russia’s Mirra Andreeva and Liudmila Samsonova both emerged with wins, though the former looked in deep trouble 4-5 down in the second set against American qualifier Katie Volynets.
In other results, Maria Sakkari and Elise Mertens both advanced via opposition retirements, the former in the third set and the latter after a first set bagel, while wildcard Caroline Garcia also booked her spot in the Round of 32. Canadian Leylah Fernandez, Armenian Elina Avanesyan, Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova and American Amanda Anisimova all won their respective matches.
2025 QATAR OPEN WTA1000 – ROUND OF 64 RESULTS:
[Q] Alycia Parks (USA) defeated [11] Diana Shnaider (RUS) 6-4 7-6
[12] Mirra Andreeva (RUS) defeated [Q] Katie Volynets (USA) 4-6 7-6 6-4
Magdalena Frech (POL) defeated [13] Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA) 6-4 3-6 6-2
[Q] Cristina Bucsa (ESP) defeated [14] Anna Kalinskaya (RUS) 6-7 7-5 6-4
[16] Liudmila Samsonova (RUS) defeated Lulu Sun (NZL) 6-3 6-3
[WC] Caroline Garcia (FRA) defeated Yue Yuan (CHN) 6-1 7-6
Maria Sakkari (GRE) defeated [Q] Elena-Gabriela Ruse (ROU) 4-6 6-3 4-0 RET
Elise Mertens (BEL) defeated Clara Tauson (DEN) 6-0 RET
Leylah Fernandez (CAN) defeated [Q] Greet Minnen (BEL) 6-1 6-2
Marta Kostyuk (UKR) defeated [WC] Zeynep Sonmez (TUR) 6-3 6-3
Elina Avanesyan (ARM) defeated Xinyu Wang (CHN) 7-6 1-6 7-6
Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) defeated [WC] Emma Raducanu (GBR) 6-3 7-5
Amanda Anisimova (USA) defeated Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 6-3 7-5
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