11 Feb Doha under way

Doha kicked off today with a Slam-strength field - of the top players only Na Li missing. Simona Halep played some awesome stuff here and Dubai last year, and she was in remarkable form today, brushing aside Olga "The Gov". I expect her to tear Ivanovic a new one. And what is that ridiculous excuse of a "skirt"? Nice one, Lacoste! Cornet wears the same, and I saw someone refer to it on Twitter as "stripper garb", not far wrong.
Had tuned in yesterday expecting to see LDL playing Tsurenko but instead was confronted by Torro-Flor playing Beygelzimer, a timely reminder of what the second day of Fed Cup can be like! An easy decision to keep the powder dry. There were some dramatic matches, Cepelova beating Bojo in over 3 hours, Sofia losing a set and 5-1 lead and looking out of it only for the unfortunate Ormaechea to collapse with cramps. Didn't see any of Sam vs Petra but by all accounts that was pretty tense chaotic stuff too. The atmosphere and tension made looking at today's matches pretty tame stuff.

Once again one disproportionate loss disfigured the PL, but unlike the one on Saturday I've no regrets over this. Many's the time Zheng has come back from the brink, and just as often I've watched A Rod discombobulate in jaw-dropping fashion. And it nearly happened today, with Zheng pulling it back from 0-5 to 3*-5 but just failing to hold serve. No way would A Rod have served it out had it gone 5*-4! So had no issues with holding on to the position to the bitter end.

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