Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka were the main names not to be involved at all in the event; out of the top 10. Bianca Andreescu though withdrew from proceedings as revealed yesterday; as have multiple other players. Johanna Konta and Danielle Collins were the latest two to do so; having also originally entered.
The former has not played a lot of tennis since the US Open; her latest defeat came at the hands of Oceane Dodin at the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy and she will now not be involved in Qatar.
This means that the likes of Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ajla Tomljanovic and Jennifer Brady will take their places in the main draw.
The top seeds will be Ashleigh Barty, Karolina Pliskova, Simona Halep and Elina Svitolina; with the full list below barring the withdrawals: