Iga Swiatek
Doha: The Qatar TotalEnergies Open will see a brand new pair of finalists since the 2018 edition as Poland’s Iga Swiatek will meet Estonian Anett Kontaveit in the title clash at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
With Kontaveit defeating Jelena Ostapenko in the first semi-final, seventh seed Swiatek overcame Maria Sakkari to set up an exciting final, which will start at 6pm, today.
In what was her toughest test yesterday, Swiatek prevailed with a 6-4, 6-3 victory to make her maiden final in Doha.
She was in brilliant form, hitting 20 winners against Sakkari, who landed nine winners in return. Each player had eight break points, but Swiatek converted five while Sakkari converted three in the match that lasted one hour and 28 minutes.
“I don’t know how that happened. I’ve been putting so much work, you know, to play well in these matches like that,” an elated Swiatek said after her win.
Anett Kontaveit
“I knew I could win a few games in a row if I was going to focus properly and just loosened up. And I thought I had nothing to lose. And yeah, that was the key because we all tend to be scared of something. But we all want to win so bad that sometimes it’s really stressful. So this whole tournament showed me that if I’m going to be fearless, I can play whatever I want,” Swiatek said.
Swiatek will be going for her fourth career WTA singles title while Kontaveit seeks her seventh trophy.
“Get some snacks, bring popcorn, I think is going to be a nice match. So yeah, I’m looking forward to it. You know, this tournament is already great. So as I said, I have nothing to lose,” Swiatek said.
Earlier, Kontaveit continued her amazing run this season when she swept away in-form Ostapenko 6-1, 6-4.
Kontaveit’s win against last week’s Dubai champion Ostapenko came in just 68 minutes as the 26-year-old stretched her winning streak to nine matches.
This also ended the Latvian World No. 13’s career-best nine-match winning run as the No.4 seed Kontaveit reached her second WTA 1000 final.
“Every point I’m trying to compete as hard as I can, regardless of the score. In the end the net cord definitely saved me a little bit - I was down break point and she had really found her game. She was playing more aggressive and finding the court a lot more, so I was under a lot of pressure and got really lucky. But I served some second serves, placed them really well eventually, and managed to close it out,” she added.
Kontaveit has reached seven finals since last August and has enjoyed the title glory on five of those occasions, with her last silverware coming from St. Petersburg two weeks ago.
Next up, she will be up against an opponent with a 50-50 record against her.
Gauff, Pegula clinch doubles title
Qatar TotalEnergies Open doubles champions Jessica Pegula (left) and Coco Gauff of the USA celebrate with the trophies after defeating Veronika Kudermetova of Russia
and Elise Mertens of Belgium 3-6, 7-5, [10-5] in the final.
