Qatar Open: Rybakina battles to tough win over Navarro, into quarter-finals

Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the No 3 seed, moved into the last 8 of the Qatar Open by edging out American Emma Navarro, the No 16 seed, 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-4 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha.

Rybakina, ranked No 4, will play Canadian Leylah Fernandez next.

In the previous round of the Qatar tournament, the Kazakh won against Chinese Lin Zhu (6-2, 6-1).

Navarro, ranked No 23, beat Italian Jasmine Paolini (6-3, 7-5) and Belgian Elise Mertens (6-1, 6-3) earlier in the tournament.

Doha WTA 1000, other last-16 results (Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, hard, USD 3.211.715, most recent results first):

• Victoria Azarenka vs. Jelena Ostapenko
• Iga Swiatek vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Lesia Tsurenko vs. Naomi Osaka
• Karolina Pliskova beat Linda Noskova: 3-6, 7-5, 6-1
• Leylah Fernandez beat Qinwen Zheng (5): 7-5, 6-3
• Danielle Collins (Q) beat Katerina Siniakova: 6-4, 6-3
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Marketa Vondrousova (6): 7-5, 6-3