Olga Govortsova of Belarus was handed a second-round clash against top seed Ana Ivanovic at the Qatar Open when Indian opponent Sania Mirza was forced to retire with cramp in the third set of their match on Tuesday.
Govortsova, the world number 50, lost the opening set 6-4 and saved two match points in the second before taking it 7-5 in a tiebreak.
She went 3-2 up in the third when Mirza called a halt to the match.
"I felt it in my left calf and it was the worst time because I had just broken her and I was serving for the match," Mirza, who first felt the problem at 4-4 in the second, told reporters.
"Then my left hamstring started going, then my groin and right calf and I couldn't move. I couldn't go down on my serve anymore because my calf wouldn't let me."
Marion Bartoli, seeded eight, suffered a 6-2, 6-3 defeat by 17-year old Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the second round, continuing her run of indifferent results since she reached the 2007 Wimbledon final.
Agnes Szavay of Hungary, seeded 13, was beaten 7-6, 6-0 by Japan's Ai Sugiyama in the first round.
There were first-round victories for ninth seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who beat Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek 6-4 6-0, and 11th-seeded Russian Dinara Safina, who defeated Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-2, 6-4.