Daria Kasatkina was a main proponent of WTA scheduling woes over the past week being forced to play the day after the Abu Dhabi Open final at the Qatar Open. But this was a famous case of hold my beer as Karolina Pliskova had it even worse coming from the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca.
Defeating Ana Bogdan in straight sets, the crazy situation saw Pliskova hot foot it to the airport and straight to Qatar with the flight taking over five hours so it was touch and go whether she would even play in Doha. Michal Hrdlicka, her husband said that it was lucky she defeated Bogdan with relative ease as she wouldn't have made it otherwise.
He went on to say that she arrived the following morning and slept for only a few hours before she had to play again. Kasatkina didn't fare as well as Pliskova losing early, while the Czech was close to doing the same as she had to come through a marathon match with Anna Kalinskaya. There is no rest for the wicked as Pliskova returns today to play yet another match and it is another iteration of the scheduling woes being under a microscope.
"She caught the flight from Cluj via Istanbul to Doha at the last minute. If the final in Romania had been played just a little longer, she would not have reached Qatar at all," said her husband on social media.
"This is how she arrived at the hotel at 8 in the morning, slept for 4 hours, had a quick lunch, 14:30 warm up and a match. Extremely challenging conditions."
Karolina Pliskova won her first title in over four years on Sunday in Cluj. Finished around 5pm GMT. She started her first round in Doha 23 hours later. Had a 8-hour flight in the middle. Changed conditions (indoor to outdoors) and balls. Still wins to reach R2. Well done.
