Tuesday, 12 February 2019:
 | | AJLA TOMLJANOVIC of Australia plays a backhand in her match against Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic of the 2018 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Australia. | |
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Ajla Tomljanovic has qualified for the main draw of the WTA's Qatar Open but Samantha Stosur has failed to get past the final hurdle in Doha.
Tomljanovic - Australia's second-highest ranked player behind Ashleigh Barty - lived up top her billing as the qualifying top seed by accounting for Polona Hercog 6-3 6-4.
The world No.41 Tomljanovic will meet ninth-seeded German Julia Goerges in the first round.
Stosur was beaten 7-6 (7-1) 3-6 6-4 by Russian Anna Blinkova in the third round of qualifying.
The qualifying rounds were completed with Tomljanovic, Blinkova, Karolina Muchova and Lin Zhu wining through while Alison Riske and Hercog grabbed the lucky loser spots.
Meanwhile, world No.49 Barbora Strycova claimed the first win of the main draw with a 6-1 6-1 demolition of Omani wildcard Fatma Al Nabhani 6-1 6-1.
Czech Strycova joined the top four seeds - Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Angelique Kerber and Elina Svitolina, who all had byes - in the last 16.
