Aslan Karatsev returned to winning ways at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha on Monday. Two months on from winning three matches at the venue to qualify for the Australian Open in Melbourne, where he reached the semi-finals (l. to Djokovic), the Russian swept past fellow wild card Mubarak Shannan Zayid 6-4, 6-0 in 65 minutes at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
Karatsev won 24 of 27 first-service points and now plays top-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem in the second round at the ATP 250 event. Thiem is competing in his first tournament since a fourth-round exit at the Australian Open (l. to Dimitrov).
Kazakhstani wild card Alexander Bublik will take on fifth-seeded Spaniard and 2019 champion Roberto Bautista Agut or American Reilly Opelka after knocking out Indian qualifier Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-4, 6-2 in 73 minutes. Bublik has already reached two ATP Tour finals this year at the Antalya Open (l. to De Minaur) and the Singapore Tennis Open (l. to Popyrin).
Elsewhere, Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili snapped a five-match losing streak by beating John Millman of Australia 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 52 minutes. Basilashvili will next wild card Malek Jaziri of Tunisia or Slovakian lucky loser Norbert Gombos.
Bautista Agut takes on Opelka on Monday night, while France’s Richard Gasquet meets Slovenian qualifier Blaz Rola.