(Tennis news) Two former champions issued walkovers on day 5 of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open. Two time champion Victoria Azarenka did not play a single point in her second round match against Madison Brengle, Azarenka is suffering from a hip injury as Brengle will now face Garbine Muguruza in the next match.

Petra Kvitova also had to leave in between the match as she was down with a wrist injury in her match against Elise Mertens. Kvitova is the defending champion and had won the title in 2018; in the first set Mertens took the lead and was 1-2 in the second set before the Czech player decided to end the match. Mertens defeated Kvitova 7-5, 1-2.

Jelena Ostapenko needed an hour and 40 minutes against Amanda Anisimova in their second round clash. Anisimova had to move around the court a lot while losing the first set as it became worse at the end of the match. In the second set, with quick serves the 20 year old took control of the match as she pounced on the returns by Ostapenko. In the decider, the match was back in the court of the Latvian as her powerful groundstrokes made a comeback to advance to the next round.

Ostapenko recorded her 7th win in a row as she will next face Barbora Krejcikova, the pair had met a month earlier at the Australian which Krejcikova won and now Ostapenko seems to be the favourite. Ostapenko defeated Anisimova 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Krejcikova was using her service games against Magda Linette to push her way through the second round. Linette had two chances of breaking serve in the match but could not make it through and the second seed broke serve four times to take a comfortable lead in both sets. Although the 30 year old landed more first serves in the second set, it was still not enough to hold a lead. Krejcikova defeated Linette 6-1, 6-3.

Paula Badosa completed the fastest match of the day when she beat Clara Tauson to progress to the round of 16. Tauson could only win 16 points in the 69 minute match, she won 9 points of her serve and 7 of Badosa’s serve. The Spaniard had lost to teenager last year in the semifinals at Lyon and this time only lost three points on first serve and had 9 aces to complete a well all round victory. The world number 4 had set points at 5-0 as she was a shot away from securing a bagel but Tauson recovered from her brave forehands to save 4 set points in the first set and avoid a bagel. Badosa defeated Tauson 6-1, 6-2.

Also read: Halep suffers earliest exit in 5 years at Doha, Svitolina falls to Martincova