Doha, Qatar, 26 February 2020 | AAP / tennis.com.au

Top seed Ash Barty has moved into the third round of the Qatar Open after seeing off the dangerous Laura Siegemund in straight sets.

The Australian then received a walkover into the quarterfinals of the $3.24 million tournament in Doha when next opponent Elena Rybakina withdrew from their clash in the last 16.

Barty, appearing as the top seed at a WTA event for the 12th time in her career, racked up 19 winners as she dispatched her German opponent 6-3 6-2 on her first ever appearance at the Doha tournament.

Ranked 68th, Siegmund — who owns three wins over top-five players — had come through qualifying before beating Yaroslava Shvedova in round one, but was unable to live with Barty’s greater consistency and serving potency as she suffered defeat in one hour and 13 minutes.

“It took some time to adjust just to the conditions and having not played my opponent before,” Barty said.

“Happy overall to be able to switch on when I really needed to. Disappointing to have a few lapses in concentration but also a credit to my opponent, she came up with some really good stuff in runs to be able to break me a few times.”

Barty was set for a rematch of her Australian Open third-round clash with Rybakina after the 14th seed battled past Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck 5-7 6-2 7-6(8).

The Kazakh then announced

Rybakina is withdrawing from Qatar Total Open with an abductor injury.
Get well soon! pic.twitter.com/9tI80fiZIr

— Qatar Tennis Federation (@QatarTennis) February 25, 2020

The in-form Rybakina has already reached four finals in 2020 and won 21 of her 25 matches, rising inside the top 20. Last week, she came within a few points of beating Simona Halep in the WTA Dubai final.

The other Australian in the Doha draw, Ajla Tomljanovic, fell 6-1 6-2 on Tuesday to the resurgent Spaniard Garbine Muguruza.

Muguruza will next face Dayana Yastremska for a shot at Barty in the quarterfinals.