Defending champion Karolina Pliskova was stunned by American qualifier CiCi Bellis 7-6(4), 6-3 in the third round of Doha on Thursday.

It was the 18-year-old’s first career Top 5 win on the WTA.

“This was huge for me,” Bellis said. “I think I played a really good match and just tried to track down as many balls as I could. Obviously, I’ve watched her play for many years and she’s one of …

Roger Federer knocked off fellow veteran and good friend Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6(8), 7-5 to reach the Rotterdam quarterfinals and move within just one match win of returning to No. 1, a position he hasn’t held in five years.

In his way will be Robin Haase.

The 36-year-old is set to become the oldest No. 1 in ATP ranking history. The last time the Swiss held No. 1 was back on October 4, …

At 30 years old, Maria Sharapova is finding her comebacks in tennis to be all the tougher.

Slated as a second-round opponent for world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki this week at the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Sharapova was instead shuttled out in the first round by No. 92-ranked qualifier Monica Niculescu.

It was the first meeting between Sharapova and the unorthodox Niculescu, who primarily slices her shots off both the forehand …

The defending champion United States advanced to a semifinal meeting at France, and Germany and the Czech Republic set up a semifinal clash after the first round of Fed Cup Group I play over the weekend.

Germany is the only unseeded country into the semis after ousting top-seeded Belarus.

Here’s a look at the weekend results:

GERMANY d. BELARUS 3-2

Tatjana Maria lost her Day 1 singles, but roared back with a three-set singles …

Roberto Carballes Baena became the second qualifier to win a first-time ATP title this week when the Spaniard defeated No. 2 seed and countryman Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 for the Ecuador Open trophy on red clay.

The 24-year-oled Carballes Baena came from a set down in both the quarterfinals and semis, during the week upsetting the No. 2 Ramos-Vinolas, No. 4 seed Paolo Lorenzi and No. 8 Nicolas Jarry.

Carballes Baena, …

Frenchman Lucas Pouille beat countryman Richard Gasquet 7-6(2), 6-4 on Sunday in the final of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, his fifth career title.

It was the third time in 10 months that Pouille saved match points en route to an ATP title.

The 23-year-old saved two match points at 1-6, 3-5 against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semifinals. He entered the event at No. 17 on the ATP rankings.

Pouille also …

Bosnia-Hetzegovina qualifier Mirza Basic beat Marius Copil 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 6-4 on Sunday to win the DIEMA XTRA Sofia Open in his first-ever ATP final in Bulgaria

The 26-year-old No. 129-ranked Basic upset a returning-from-injury Stan Wawrinka in the semifinals.

In the third set of the championship match Basic broke at 4-4 before serving it out.

“I’m very happy for breaking through after the match yesterday [against Wawrinka],” Basic said afterwards. “After this week …

A loaded field revisits the race for No. 1 between Caroline Wozniacki and Simona Halep, and features two unseeded former Slam champions and an unseeded former world No. 2 in Aggie Radwanska among the stars at the WTA’s Qatar Total Open in Doha.

QATAR TOTAL OPEN
DOHA, Qatar; surface: hard

Seeds: Caroline Wozniacki, Simona Halep, Elina Svitolina, Garbine Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova, Jelena Ostapenko, Caroline Garcia, Angelique Kerber, Julia Goerges, Johanna Konta, Kristina Mladenovic, …

Rafael Nadal is idle this week, so Roger Federer by reaching the Rotterdam semifinals can regain the No. 1 ranking for the first time since 2012.

Top 10ers joining the top-seeded Federer in the field are Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev, and David Goffin.

ABN AMRO WORLD TENNIS TOURNAMENT
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands; surface: indoor hard

Seeds: Roger Federer, Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev, David Goffin, Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, Lucas Pouille, Gilles Muller

Floaters: David Ferrer, Richard Gasquet, …

NEW YORK OPEN
Long Island, New York, USA; surface: hard

Seeds: Kevin Anderson, Sam Querrey, John Isner, Adrian Mannarino, Kei Nishikori, Ryan Harrison, Steve Johnson, Nikoloz Basilashvili

Floaters: none

Notes:

It is the first edition of the event in New York after it relocated from Memphis, taking place at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale; the tournament reportedly will be the first on the ATP World Tour to use black tennis courts…

No Top 10ers …

Two Top 10ers and a couple disrupters make the Argentina Open an event to keep an eye on this week as Dominic Thiem returns to his favorite clay in an attempt to win a second career Buenos Aires title.

ARGENTINA OPEN
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina; surface: clay

Seeds: Dominic Thiem, Pablo Carreno Busta, Albert Ramos Vinolas, Fabio Fognini, Diego Schwartzman, Kyle Edmund, Pablo Cuevas, Fernando Verdasco

Floaters: Gael Monfils, Guillermo “G-Lo” Garcia-Lopez

Notes:

Two Top 10ers in …

In a surprise move, Roger Federer has accepted a wildcard into next week’s indoor event at Rotterdam. The recent Australian Open champion was off until Indian Wells, but will be back in action with a shot at the No. 1 ranking in a few days.

“The tournament is special for me,” Federer said. “I remember playing for the first time in 1999 as it was one of the first events where …

The Dominican Republic’s 37-year-old Victor Estrella Burgos transforms to Superman every February for the Ecuador Open, but Superman almost met his kryptonite on Monday in Quito.

Estrella Burgos, who has won the title the last three years, on Monday in his opening round edged Thomaz Bellucci 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. It was the fourth year in a row Estrella Burgos faced Bellucci after beating him in the 2015 semifinals, the 2016 final, …

Petra Kvitova rolled over defending champion Kristina Mladenovic 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday to win her first title of 2018 at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy in Russia.

“This was a special tournament for me,” Kvitova said after the match. “All week, I played unbelievable matches and I really had to fight to make the final.”

The unseeded wildcard during the week upset No. 7 Elena Vesnina, No. 2 Jelena Ostapenko and No. …

Spain upset No. 3-seeded Britain who was without Andy Murray, Germany ousted No. 6 Australia, Kazakhstan upset No. 5 Switzerland who was without Roger Federer or Stan Wawrinka, and the U.S. beat No. 7 Serbia who was missing the services of former No. 1 Novak Djokovic in upsets during round one of the Davis Cup World Group over the weekend.

Here is a look at the first round as it happened …