Qatar Open

The Qatar Open is a WTA 1000 tennis tournament held in Doha on hard courts, played in February. It is a women's event, so only one tour is in town. The main singles draw holds 64 players.

Doha opens the short Middle East stretch that bridges the Australian season and the American spring, and it is as much an evening tournament as a daytime one. The heat pushes the schedule late, and the courts play noticeably quicker under floodlights than they do in the afternoon sun.

Because it falls between two much larger blocks of the calendar, the entry list is a good barometer of who is fit and who is resting. Players who went deep in Melbourne sometimes skip it altogether, which opens the draw for anyone who arrives sharp.

The conditions are dry and the ball travels, so this is a week that rewards flat, early hitting rather than heavy topspin.

Our dates count the main draw only. Qualifying runs the week before and most calendars fold it in, which is why a start date printed elsewhere can be a week earlier than the one at the top of this page. The full draw with scores is on its own page.

The main draw holds 64 players in single elimination, which is 6 rounds to the title and 63 matches in all. Seeds are spread through the bracket so the strongest cannot meet early, and qualifiers arrive already match-sharp. How seeding, byes and qualifying work is explained in the guides.

The Qatar Open draw with every score is on its own page and updates while the tournament is being played.

Karolina Muchova won the women's title in 2026, beating Victoria Mboko in the final by 6-4, 7-5. They were ranked 7 in the world at the time of writing.

A title here does not only change the trophy cabinet. It sets the number the same player has to defend twelve months later, and defending is the hardest thing in tennis: the points disappear on schedule whether or not the player is fit, in form or even entered.

5 of the 8 quarter-finalists in the women's draw were seeded, which is close to what the seedings predicted. Karolina Muchova took the title from the number 14 seeding, and the final went 2 sets.

Numbers like these are the quickest way to read a tournament you did not watch. A draw where most of the seeds survive to the last eight was decided on quality; one where they did not was decided by conditions, scheduling or fatigue, and the surface section above usually explains which.

Rights to the Qatar Open are sold country by country, so the answer depends entirely on where you are sitting. There is no free-to-air option for this event in the major markets, which is normal below Grand Slam level.

The Qatar Open is played in Doha, in the Gulf, and matches are played in the late afternoon and evening local time, which is a comfortable afternoon slot for Europe.

There is no free-to-air route to this one in the major markets. That is typical below Grand Slam level: the free coverage in tennis is concentrated on the four majors, and only in the countries that host them or have a historic public-broadcast deal.

Doha plays into the evening because of the heat, and the last match on centre court frequently starts after 8pm local. For Western Europe that is a late afternoon or early evening slot, which makes it one of the more watchable weeks of the winter. Only the main court gets a full broadcast feed; the second and third courts are usually available as a stream if at all, and that is where the early rounds are played.

The viewing guide goes through what each service covers across the season and what it leaves out.