A lull tends to follow a spectacular breakthrough by a relatively unheralded player.  That player must recover physically from the extra matches caused by advancing deeper into a draw, and that player also must adjust mentally to an unexpected rise in stature.  Thus, few fans should have been startled by the early Doha defeats of surprise Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova and surprise Australian Open semifinalist Eugenie Bouchard.

This was particularly true of CIbulkova, who never had appeared on the stage of a major final until last month and was far from favored to do so as the 20th seed.  Her Melbourne upsets over top-five opponents Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska shocked the tennis world and inevitably raised expectations for the rest of 2014.  But Cibulkova's uneven form in Fed Cup during the weekend before Doha suggested that she would suffer from a post-breakthrough hangover.  She lost both of her matches to Germany, one to the stagnating Andrea Petkovic, and today she retired in the first set of her Doha opener with a gastrointestinal illness.  (On a side note, Cibulkova's retirement may have opened the door for opponent Alisa Kleybanova, one of the WTA's most heart-warming stories as she aims to revive her career after Hodgkin's lymphoma.)

Bouchard's exit to hard-serving American Bethanie Mattek-Sands may have come as a somewhat greater surprise.  In contrast to Cibulkova, Bouchard had shone during her Fed Cup tie against an overmatched Serbian team lacking Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic.  The Canadian phenom, soon to turn 20, lost only four games in her two victories over the weekend.  Playing before an adoring Canadian crowd surely boosted Bouchard's confidence even more after her run to the Australian Open semifinals, which included two comebacks from losing the first set.  That resilience did not surface in Doha, where she faded quickly after losing a tight first set.  On the other hand, Mattek-Sands already has proven herself a difficult matchup for Bouchard, not to mention some more notable opponents.  A week before the Australian Open, she defeated the Canadian routinely in Sydney and toppled Radwanska a round later.  

The Premier Five event in Doha already absorbed a blow when three of the top five women (Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, and Maria Sharapova) withdrew before it started.  And some of the top-10 women who did travel to the Persian Gulf may jion Cibulkova and Bouchard on the sidelines soon.  Upset potential certainly knocks in three of Wednesday's matches involving high seeds.  While world No. 6 Petra Kvitova must solve seven-time major champion Venus Williams, world No. 8 Jelena Jankovic faces suddenly surging Italian Karin Knapp.  The newest arrival to the top 10, Simona Halep must blunt the power of Kaia Kanepi two weeks after she could not master a similar task against Kristina Mladenovic in Paris.  Like Cibulkova and Bouchard, Halep may endure a lull before settling into her new niche near the top.