Five top 25 players withdraw from next week's Qatar Open, both Australian Open finalists remain for now

The Qatar Open takes place next week but in terms of big names, the event initially saw the whole of the top 32 enter in apart from Naomi Osaka who withdrew initially last week but has now confirmed to be fully out and more players have now withdrawn.

Jessica Pegula is the leading one who won't play, she reached the semi-finals losing out to Elena Rybakina. While Naomi Osaka herself is out with an injury that saw her withdraw from her clash with Maddison Inglis.

Madison Keys missed most of the Middle Eastern swing last year due to not wanting to play post winning the Australian Open and took on more of a reduced schedule in 2025. But whether this remains into 2026 in regards to Keys deciding not to play more than the Australian Open until Indian Wells remains to be seen.

But the former champion in Melbourne will not be in Doha and has since withdrawn. As has Marta Kostyuk who will not be involved in Qatar.

Iva Jovic too is also taking a rest albeit Jovic now has a higher status so she can afford to do so as a top 20 player. She has been playing most weeks since the start of the year with the 18-year-old reaching the latter stages in both Hobart and Auckland prior to her Australian Open run.

So she will take some rest given also she doesn't have the usual clause of being a teenager so she can't play as many events. This also works in her favour in regards to picking and choosing. This means that she doesn't have to play the events alloted to her simply because she is underage and she can now decide also defending not much until her Guadalajara points come off.

Also unlike for instance Lois Boisson further down who keeps rising despite barely playing, Boisson has to defend semi-final points and a title from Roland Garros and Hamburg respectively while Jovic has had little success prior to this in Grand Slams as a comparison point so won't have to play this event.

Xinyu Wang, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Marie Bouzkova, Katerina Siniakova, Laura Siegemund and Daria Kasatkina are all now in the main draw as a result of withdrawals and the shifting up of places.

Both Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina (for now) are still in the tournament as are Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova as well as Coco Gauff. But likely more withdrawals are imminent, Sabalenka for instance is likely one to keep an eye on due to the fact that she often goes on holiday in between Australia and also was not exactly in the best frame of mind post Melbourne.

Rybakina presumably will still play as she bids to challenge the top two in the coming months.