Around the World in half a day: Karolina Pliskova playing one day after Transylvania Open Cluj win in baffling scheduling issue at Qatar Open

Daria Kasatkina was audibly annoyed about having to play at the Qatar Open on Monday after reaching the Abu Dhabi Open final with Elena Rybakina receiving a bye through due to being a top seed. But it could be worse in the case of Karolina Pliskova.

Pliskova has spent the week playing in Eastern Europe winning the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca. She defeated Ana Bogdan in the final just one day ago and has had to high tail it to Doha in order to play which is a just over seven hour flight with a connection. 3440 kilometres to be exact and so Pliskova will likely arrive just hours before she is due to play.

Anna Kalinskaya who reached the latter stages at the Australian Open last month awaits in the opening round on a stacked day that also includes Emma Raducanu, Leylah Fernandez, Victoria Azarenka, Naomi Osaka and Iga Swiatek.

Kasatkina also plays even earlier against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Another tournament in which scheduling woes are a focus and the WTA tournaments being in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Pliskova in particular wouldn't have benefitted from a bye due to her ranking, but a performance bye rule was not implemented which has hamstrung multiple players. Including Rybakina who despite getting a bye will get minimal days off.