Kiki Bertens overcomes nightmare start to advance at Qatar Open

WTA Tour
Kiki Bertens on the run

Kiki Bertens looked set for an early exit from the Qatar Open, but then she got her act together and held off Camila Giorgi.

The fifth-seeded Bertens was all over the show as Giorgi bagelled her in the opening set, but she bounced back to come out on top of the 0-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 encounter in just under two hours.

On the back of her first-set disaster, Bertens found herself two points from defeat as the Italian was 5-1 up in the tie-breaker, but she won nine of the final 10 points to take it to a decider.

Even in the third set she found herself 4-3 down, but won the final three games to reach the second round where she will face Carla Suarez Navarro, who was a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Ons Jabeur.

Ninth seed Julia Goerges had no such problems as the German eased past Ajla Tomljanovic from Australia with a 6-2, 6-2 win.

Seventh seed Anastasija Sevastova was the biggest casualty as the Latvian suffered a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 defeat at the hands of Anna Blinkova.

Lesia Tsurenko earned herself a second-round encounter with top seed Simona Halep with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Lara Arruabarrena while Anett Kontaveit will face third seed Angelique Kerber after beating Lin Zhu 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.

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