Ekaterina Makarova News

World number two Simona Halep won easily on her return to competitive action since losing the Australian Open final, beating Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets in the Qatar Open on Wednesday.

Makarova, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals after stunning Serena Williams three years ago, rode an early break for a 5-3 lead and, even though her Latvian opponent got back to 5-5, raced away with the first set tiebreak.

The former number one, on the comeback trail after a 15-month drug ban, was never really comfortable on her serve on the outside hard court in Beijing, where she had the crowd behind her.

In a 55-minute final, which followed a 4 hour 41 minute men's doubles championship epic, the second-seeded Russians collected a third Slam doubles title as a team.

The 30-year-old five-time Grand Slam winner dominated Makarova, ranked 43 in the world, for a 7-5, 6-1 win in just one hour, 20 minutes, in the second-round tie.

The third seeded duo registered a convincing 6-2, 7-5 win over American pair of Abigail Spears and Katarina Srebotnik in a thrilling quarter-final encounter.

Nadal needed all his trademark grit against Zverev, 19, dubbed "the future of tennis", and his superior fitness told as he ground out a thrilling five set win.

Defending champions Sania and Hingis had lost to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals Singapore yesterday.

The second-seeded Indo-Swiss combination squandered a one-set lead to go down 6-3, 2-6, 6-10 to the Russian pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.

It has been the maiden championship of Garcia and Mladenovic in a major event.

The Indo-Swiss pair also won in Sydney, Brisbane, Australian Open and St Petersburg this year.

World number four Sharapova, 28, who beat Ana Ivanovic in last year`s Brisbane final, leads Makarova 6-0 in their past meetings.