Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia stuns Kasatkina and advances in Doha

Jessica Pegula will now have her first meeting with Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia in the quarterfinals. Haddad Maia took down No.6 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-6(7) in 1 hour and 40 minutes to make her third quarterfinal of the year.
Since being upset in the first round of the Australian Open, Haddad Maia has won five of her last six matches. The Brazilian reached the semifinals in Abu Dhabi last week, helping her reach her new career-high ranking of World No.12.
Haddad Maia had a chance to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second set, but could not finish it there. Kasatkina then had triple set point at 6-3 in the second-set tiebreak, putting her on the brink of tying the match.

However, Kasatkina hit three straight errors to allow Haddad Maia to claw back to 6-6 in the breaker. Haddad Maia then converted her second match point at 8-7 by polishing off a rally with an error-forcing forehand.

Sakkari eases into quarterfinals
At roughly the same time as Pegula's win, another Top 5 seed joined her in the Doha quarterfinals. No.5 seed Maria Sakkari cruised past 18th-ranked Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-2 to reach the last eight in Qatar for the third straight season.

World No.7 Sakkari continued her sterling record against Alexandrova, improving to 6-1 in their head-to-head after Wednesday's 1-hour and 21-minute victory. Sakkari is into her second quarterfinal in a two-week span, following her semifinal showing in Linz a week ago.

Greece's Sakkari backed up her tough first-round win over Zheng Qinwen with a more straightforward result against Alexandrova. Sakkari was particularly strong returning the Alexandrova second service, winning 65 percent of those points.