Iga Swiatek suffers first defeat to younger opponent Andreeva in Dubai

Mirra Andreeva upset No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships quarterfinals, winning 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour and 36 minutes. The 17-year-old came from a break down in the second set to seal her fifth career Top 10 victory.


Andreeva, the No. 12 seed, is now the youngest player to record five Top 10 wins since Nicole Vaidisova defeated Elena Dementieva at the 2007 Australian Open. The result also marks her second win over a World No. 2, following her defeat of Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Roland Garros quarterfinals.


Andreeva advances to her second semifinal at WTA 1000 level or above following Roland Garros 2024, and fifth tour-level semifinal overall. She is the youngest player to reach the last four in Dubai since the tournament's inception in 2001. Andreeva will bid to reach her second WTA final (following her maiden title in Iasi last July) against No. 6 seed Elena Rybakina, who defeated wild card Sofia Kenin 6-2, 7-6(2). In their only previous meeting in the 2023 Beijing third round, Rybakina came from a set and 4-2 down to deny Andreeva 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

The first eagerly-anticipated meeting between Swiatek and Andreeva was a three-set barnburner in last year's Cincinnati quarterfinals, which the five-time major champion edged 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. In the rematch, the youngster again took the first set -- but this time, she halted Swiatek's attempted resurgence in its tracks, reeling off the last five games in a row to avenge the Cincinnati loss. Andreeva is the first player under the age of 18 to defeat Swiatek at tour level.

"Last time we played was a close match and it was tough, it was intense," Andreeva said afterwards. "This time I just tried to tell myself to go for my shots, to be aggressive, to not hesitate. I think that helped me to win in a way."

Cool under pressure: Despite the scoreline, the match featured several high-intensity stretches in which momentum could have got away from Andreeva. Yet it was notable that each time, her concentration never wavered. Andreeva responded to every potential setback with a steely demeanor and cool-headed play.Swiatek came out of the blocks firing, and Andreeva's first service game was the first mini-barnburner of the match. It featured five clean backhand down the line winners between the pair, four of which came from Swiatek. There were four deuces, and Andreeva had to face down three break points. But it was the quality of her own backhand that saw her get over the line and on the board for 1-1.

Up 2-1 with the first break, Andreeva seemed to be coasting to a 3-1 lead courtesy of a pair of aces. But on game point, play was halted for several minutes due to a video review to establish whether she had touched the net chasing down a short return. She had, and a few points later faced a break-back point instead. But Andreeva faced this down as well, and held for 3-1 anyway with her third ace of the game.
Swiatek raised the pressure again at the start of the second set, hammering five clean return winners in Andreeva's first two service games of the set. She broke for 2-1, then saved two break-back points to extend her lead to 3-1. At this stage, the trajectory of the match was starting to look like a redux of their Cincinnati encounter. But Andreeva would not allow the repeat. Instead, she put together her cleanest, most dominant stretch of the match. Andreeva did not face game point as she reeled off the last five in a row, conceding only five points in this stretch (and just one on serve).

Afterwards, Andreeva said that she has been working with a psychologist on this.

"I have some new tips," she told press. "I have some new advices, in a way, how to work with my anger inside, what to do when I don't feel great, how to maintain my level when I feel great, how to keep being me.


"For example when it was 1-1, I was serving. When she broke me, she did three return winners. There was not much I could do about it. I just had to accept it. Been also working on acceptance when something doesn't go my way.

"I felt like it was out there on the court that I felt like still 1-3, but I feel strong. I feel like I'm still right there with her. Just thought that, OK, it's going to take some time but I'm going to go back and I'm going to try to come back and win the second set."

Aces, down-the-line winners key: Andreeva's backhand down the line is her signature shot, and was responsible for several of her best winners. But she also caught Swiatek off guard with her forehand down the line in several key moments, particularly after pulling the Pole forwards with short forehand slices: two such winners paved the way to a break for 2-1 in the first set, and another for 5-3 in the second. Andreeva also displayed a knack for upping the ante on return: she sealed the opening set with consecutive down-the-line return winners off each wing.

Andreeva's brilliant serving was also a crucial component of her win. She sent down 10 aces in total, including a nerveless pair as she served out the match. In total, she dropped just nine points behind her first serve. This is the third-highest number of aces Andreeva has served in a single tour-level match, following the 12 she fired against Swiatek at Cincinnati 2024 and the 11 she totalled against Katie Volynets in the first round of Doha last week.

Overall, Andreeva's ability to raise her level did not come at the expense of over-pressing -- in contrast to Swiatek. Andreeva tallied 18 winners but only 13 unforced errors, but Swiatek's 22 winners were outweighed by 33 unforced errors. Frequently, the former World No. 1's radar went awry in important moments: she was broken in the first set on a double fault, and twice in the second set on backhand mistakes. A final forehand wide sealed victory for Andreeva.

"I wasn't really sure where my ball is going to go," said Swiatek afterwards. "I wasn't as precise as I should be. Mirra is a good player. I already could see that before when we practiced and when we played in Cincinnati. It's not like I can win against her when I play worse."

Swiatek's dissatisfaction wasn't just with her loss to Andreeva, but her entire Middle East swing. Last week in Doha as three-time defending champion, she fell 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals to Jelena Ostapenko.

"For sure I'm not happy with the results," she said. "I feel like I under-performed. For sure I need to, like, talk with my team a bit and plan the next weeks a bit differently 'cause I haven't had much time to practice before these tournaments. I felt that my tennis was kind of... There were some things missing that should have been there. We'll talk about it."

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Not much to say about this one 

I think Iga does a pretty good job of explaining things herself in that last paragraph. 

Usually I like to watch the match myself to properly analyze it, but seeing as the match was on at 5am I woke up knowing the result and chose not to rewatch this time. 

Images on social media showed me just how upset and unhappy Iga looked. And I wasn't in the mood to see Iga this erratic and mad at herself. 

I'll wait for Indian Wells and Miami. 

Hopefully a bit of rest will allow Iga to have a bit of a regroup and reset, maybe a bit of training to work on some things. 

Some days are better than others on the carousel that is the tennis tour. Today was one of Iga's bad ones.

But we stay positive, as long as Iga is healthy she will get more chances and comeback stronger.

Iga Swiatek back into the quarters in Dubai

No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek survived a barrage of power hitting from Dayana Yastremska to advance to the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships quarterfinals 7-5, 6-0 in 1 hour and 32 minutes.

Swiatek had lost her only previous meeting with Yastremska 7-6(2), 6-4 in 2019 Billie Jean King Cup action, and had suffered a heavy 6-3, 6-1 defeat in last week's Doha semifinals to Jelena Ostapenko. The Ukrainian, who has a similar all-out commitment to first-strike aggression as Ostapenko, did not hold back in the first set. Swiatek had to battle to close it out as Yastremska fought back from 5-3 down, saving the first two set points against her.

Five-time major champion Swiatek found herself in the rare position of being on the back foot in most of the rallies, mustering just two winners in the first set to Yastremska's 16. But unlike Ostapenko in Doha, Yastremska was unable to sustain her best hitting to gain any real momentum or take the lead at any point. Her cascade of unforced errors accounted for 47 of Swiatek's total of 67 points won.

"I knew I had many opportunities to break Dayana on her serve, so I just wanted to be consistent with my service games and I knew the chances are going to come," said Swiatek in her on-court interview. "We have many girls on tour right now who are heavy hitters and they risk it. If it's in, it's impossible to get it. If it's out, you grab these points and be grateful for them. It's not easy -- you have to have a lot of patience and acceptance."

Despite finding a series of thrilling winners to level at 5-5 in the opener, Yastremska's level dipped sharply after that. She won just one more point in the first set, losing it on a wild forehand miss, and then just eight points total in the second set. Swiatek was thus able to reel off the last eight straight games to set up a quarterfinal date with No. 12 seed Mirra Andreeva, who raced past Peyton Stearns 6-1, 6-1 in 1 hour and 13 minutes. The result put Andreeva into her fifth quarterfinal at WTA 1000 level or above.

Andreeva and Stearns were both playing their second match of Wednesday, after both won second-round matches postponed from Tuesday due to rain. Earlier, Andreeva held off former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 6-0, improving to 2-0 overall against the Czech, who required medical treatment on her wrist between sets.

Stearns notched a milestone win with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 upset of No. 7 seed Zheng Qinwen, her first Top 10 victory at her 11th attempt. The American had lost a trio of three-set heartbreakers in Australia last month to Top 20 opponents -- 7-6(7), 4-6, 7-5 to Daria Kasatkina in Brisbane, 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5 to Paula Badosa in Adelaide and 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5 to Emma Navarro at the Australian Open. Her defeat of Zheng levels her three-set record in 2025 at three wins to three losses. Zheng is now on a three-match losing streak, having notched just one victory this year so far over Anca Todoni in the Australian Open first round.

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Iga Swiatek stays near perfect in opening round matches

Delayed over four hours before starting her Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships campaign, Iga Swiatek wasted no time once on court. The No. 2 seed swept past Victoria Azarenka 6-0, 6-2 in a battle of former finalists to reach the last 16.

A long rain delay had paused Jasmine Paolini's match ahead of Swiatek on Center Court at match point to the defending champion against Eva Lys. In her on-court interview, the Pole said that she had warmed up "four or five" times initially, before settling down with a book, a nap and some Lego -- the last of which was interrupted by her match call.

Swiatek, the Dubai runner-up to Barbora Krejcikova in 2023, had suffered a heavy 6-3, 6-1 loss to Jelena Ostapenko last week in the Doha semifinals. But she bounced back to her usual position of doling them out with an immaculate performance against Azarenka, the 2010 runner-up to Venus Williams, sealing victory in just 1 hour and 13 minutes.

31-9: Swiatek tallied 31 winners to just nine unforced errors in the match, with her forehand down the line particularly breathtaking in its power and accuracy. Her opening set was near-perfect. She committed only three unforced errors, only faced one break point, and did not allow Azarenka to reach game point on her own serve.

2: Swiatek was relentless in attacking the Azarenka second serve, winning 13 out of 15 points behind it.

17: In total, Swiatek put together a 17-game winning streak against Azarenka. She had won the last nine in a row of their last meeting, a 6-4, 6-0 win in the 2024 Doha quarterfinals, and won the first eight here. A rare Swiatek double fault ended the streak in the third game of the second set, after which a pumped-up Azarenka was able to get a foothold in more of the higher-intensity exchanges. But after Swiatek had fended off three break points to reach 5-2, the five-time major champion broke Azarenka for the sixth time to close the match out. She now owns a 4-1 record against Azarenka.

51: Swiatek has gone 51 consecutive tournaments without losing her opening match, starting at Adelaide 2022. This ties the longest such run this century -- Kim Clijsters did not lose her opening match between Montreal 2002 and Hasselt 2005 inclusive, before her streak was snapped by Mary Pierce at the 2005 WTA Finals Los Angeles. Swiatek's last opening loss came to Maria Sakkari at the 2021 WTA Finals Guadalajara. (Her last opening loss at a knockout tournament was to Ons Jabeur at Cincinnati 2021.)

5: The match marks just the fifth time that Azarenka has won two games or fewer in a completed tour-level match. The first two occasions were in 2007, when she was 17 years old -- 6-1, 6-1 losses to Romina Oprandi in the Amelia Island first round and to Karin Knapp at the same stage of Roland Garros. Azarenka also lost 6-0, 6-2 to Ashleigh Barty in the 2021 Cincinnati third round and to Emma Raducanu in the 2022 Cincinnati second round.

0-1: Swiatek's next opponent will be former Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska, who ended Anastasia Potapova's six-match winning streak 6-2, 6-3. Swiatek has a 0-1 record against the Ukrainian, who won their only previous encounter 7-6(2), 6-4 in 2019 Billie Jean King Cup group stage action.

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Iga Swiatek's extraordinary Doha streak ends in the semis

 Every player in the history of this sport has always had one opponent who was their kryptonite. When Federer first started out it was Nalbandian than Djokovic. 

For Maria Sharapova it was Serena Williams (who she never beat). 

And for Iga Swiatek that person is Jelena Ostapenko. 

To be fair all the players I mentioned actually met a lot more often whereas Iga and Penko meet once every couple of years hard to get a handle or come up with an effective strategy on a player like this when you don't play them much.

Still with a 5-0 H2H now, it's safe to say Ostapenko is definitely in Iga's head for the moment (doesn't mean it'll stay like this forever). 

It quite often depends on which Ostapenko shows up. The one who can barely get a ball in court and makes error after error, or the one who cannot miss. 

For the moment Iga keeps meeting the latter. 

Of course it figures Ostapenko would find her form when she falls on Iga's side of the draw. Something about Iga's game suits her, and for Iga it's the polar opposite. 

I'm willing to bet though even if Ostapenko wins this title tomorrow we'll probably not see her win much else for the rest of the year. 

She has always been hot and cold in this regard. 

When she's on she's on, but when she goes off you won't see her do anything of note on court for months. It's Ostapenko in a nutshell really. 

Of  course with this loss social media is starting to spout their usual nonsense, she's got a new coach but nothing has changed, she's afraid of change, her game has been stagnant since last year, blah, blah blah. 

So beyond tired of it.

When just a month ago they were all singing Iga's praises regarding her serve forehand and so on. 

So many continue to forget Iga is a human being not a robot, she's going to lose matches it's the nature of any sport. 

Honestly when Ostapenko plays like this there are very few people who can stop her. Ons Jabeur who's the queen of variety barely got a few games this week having just beaten her last week in Abu Dhabi.

It's impossible to win with someone who's just redlining, hitting one-two punches (with every ball going in) and basically ending the rally before it even starts. 

Ostapenko will always be an anomaly, so I'm honestly not reading much into it. She just loves ruining all the fun. 

We move on to Dubai (and pray Ostapenko is far away from Iga or gets knocked out early).

Keep your head up Iga, the year is still going great. 

Iga Swiatek makes it 15 straight wins in Doha

 

Three-time defending Qatar TotalEnergies Open champion Iga Swiatek returned to the semifinals with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Elena Rybakina in Thursday's quarterfinals -- her 15th straight win at the tournament overall.

In a rematch of last year's championship match, Swiatek came from 4-2 down in the second set, and saved two break points at 4-4, before eventually wrapping up a straight-sets victory in 1 hour and 36 minutes.

After beating Rybakina at last month's United Cup, Swiatek has now leveled her all-time head-to-head against the Kazakh to 4-4, and she continues on her quest to be just the second WTA player since 2000 to win four straight titles at a single event.

But Swiatek will need to get a first win in five tries against Jelena Ostapenko, the 2016 Doha finalist, for another spot in the final match. Ostapenko defeated Ons Jabeur in Thursday's third quarterfinal, 6-2, 6-2, to book her own spot in the semifinals.

How the match was won: After a 36-minute first set, where Swiatek won the first three games and never faced a break point, Rybakina converted on her second chance in the second set's opening game to set a new tone for the match.

What followed was an hour-long set in which Rybakina bent, but never broke -- at least at first. She saved two break points in her first service game to lead 2-0, and three more the next time she stepped to the line to extend her advantage to 3-1.

But handed a sixth break point in the set at 4-3, 15-40, it was Swiatek's turn to come up with clutch play. As Rybakina charged the net off of a well-timed backhand, Swiatek whipped a forehand past her for the break back.

In the deciding game, Swiatek hammered a cross-court backhand return winner off of a short second serve to deny Rybakina a tiebreak, and the contest ended two points later when the No. 5 seed served up just her second double fault in the match overall.

"I'm super happy, super proud of myself. Playing against Elena is never easy," Swiatek said afterwards. "At the beginning of the second set, she increased her level, so I needed to do that too to come back.

I'm really happy, especially in the last game, to break Elena, because with her serve, it's tough."

Stat of the day: The win is Swiatek's 100th at WTA 1000 level in 121 matches played -- making her the second-fastest to the milestone after Serena Williams, who played 115 WTA 1000 matches to do it.

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70 - Since the inception of the Tier format in 1990, Iga Swiatek (70.1%) is now one of only three players to hold a 70+% win rate vs WTA top 10 opponents, along with Steffi Graf (75%) and Serena Williams (70.9%). Company.

15 - Iga Swiatek has become the player with the longest winning streak at the Qatar Open since the tournament’s inception in 2001 (15 wins in a row). Home.

A near perfect 1st set and a come back from a break down in the 2nd against Rybakina a rival who frustrated Iga to no end in the past. 

Now she finally seems to have a handle on it. Shows excellent improvement and overall great mentality. Serve held up quite well today too.

Up next will be the bane in Iga's side (along with her fans) Jelena Ostapenko whom she hasn't played since U.S. Open 2023.

Doha is where Iga finally overcame the one sided H2H she used to have with Maria Sakkari (which she now leads). It's also where she got her first win over Rybakina. 

So if there was ever a place to finally break the Ostapenko curse of 0-4 it is here.

Jazda Iga go for it!. It's finally your time to show Penko exactly how for you've come.

Iga Swiatek keeps Doha four-peat hopes alive with gritty Noskova win

There may be no more intimidating sight in today’s tennis than Iga Swiatek on the other side of the net in Doha. But for more than two-and-a-half hours Wednesday, a fearless 20-year-old from the Czech Republic challenged the World No. 2 in every way possible.

In the end, Swiatek displayed those ethereal qualities that helped her capture five Grand Slam singles titles, the most of any currently active player under 40. Slowly, she reeled in No. 33 Linda Noskova and emerged with a 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-4 victory in the Round of 16 at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open.

This was Swiatek’s 14th consecutive match win in Doha and it keeps alive her chances to score a rare four-peat. She has won 15 of 16 matches in Doha (.930), history’s best mark.

On Thursday, Swiatek will meet No. 5 Elena Rybakina, a 7-6 (1), 6-2 winner over Rebecca Sramkova, in what promises to be a rousing quarterfinal match.

The other Top 4 seeds will be absent from the final four after a string of upsets Tuesday that saw No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 3 Coco Gauff, No. 7 Zheng Qinwen and No. 9 Paula Badosa fall out of the draw. On Wednesday, No. 4 Jasmine Paolini was upset by Jelena Ostapenko.

Thus, Swiatek and Rybakina are the two highest-seeded players left. Rybakina leads the entertaining series 4-3. It will be a rematch of last year's Doha final, which Swiatek won 7-6(8), 6-2 to seal her three-peat.

Although Swiatek is a four-time Roland Garros champion, Rybakina won both of their matches on clay, two years ago in Rome and last year in Stuttgart. Swiatek holds a 3-2 lead on hard courts, including the only match this year -- a 7-6 (5), 6-4 barnburner less than six weeks ago at the United Cup in Sydney.

“Tough opponent as always,” Rybakina said of Swiatek. “Going to focus on myself, and try to stay aggressive on the court. It’s definitely the toughest opponent so far on this tournament, so hopefully I can do well.”

That Noskova gave Swiatek a real ride was no random accident. For it was Noskova who drummed Swiatek out of the Australian Open last year with a three-set third-round win. Swiatek, though, has now won four of their five matches.

At 17, Mirra Andreeva is the youngest member of the PIF WTA Ranking’s Top 100. And while there are five 20-year-olds right behind her -- including World No. 3 Coco Gauff -- Noskova is the youngest of the bunch.

The first-set tiebreak was surprisingly one-sided. An unreturned serve gave Noskova a 2-1 lead when Swiatek wavered uncharacteristically. After her second errant forehand, she screamed “Iga!” twice in visible frustration. A few more errors, a few more big serves and Noskova had won seven of the extra session’s eight points.

Swiatek -- who had been pressured from the baseline -- gradually gathered herself in the second set. After three consecutive breaks of serve, Swiatek held for a 5-3 lead and eventually served it out.

Coming out fast in the third, Swiatek broke Noskova in the opening game but Noskova broke back to level it at 2-all. Serving at 3-4, down love-30, Swiatek won six consecutive points and delivered the emphatic break of Noskova to take a non-negotiable 5-4 lead.

Noskova finished with 16 aces, nine of them coming in the first set. But Swiatek was better in the big moments, saving six of eight break points and breaking Noskova's potent serve four times.

Noskova actually won more points, 101-98.

Although Swiatek said last year’s victory over Rybakina in the final was difficult, she called this one against Noskova her toughest win ever in Doha.

“Yeah, I think so,” she told reporters. “I would say Linda played amazing, and for sure she didn’t make it easy for me.”

But Rybakina, Swiatek said, is always a tough out.


“She likes playing here, she’s been in a final here last year, and last year also was tough. So I’ll be ready for some intense rallies, and some low balls, and good serving.”


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Sometimes surviving tough test like this is all that matters and Iga give more than 100 percent today. 

More challenges ahead. But I think after today Iga is definitely ready to meet them. 

If you can survive an opponent who served 16 aces you're certainly well prepared for someone like Rybakina.

Jazda!.

Iga Swiatek starts Doha title defence with a win

The pointedly passive-aggressive question came up early in Iga Swiatek’s press conference at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open:

“By your high standards,” a reporter asked Sunday, “do you feel like you have a little bit more pressure on yourself when you’re looking for your first title in a little while?”

Swiatek, 23, but already far wiser than her numerical age, didn’t flinch.

“No,” she said. “I know how tennis works. It doesn’t always depend on you if you win titles or not. You just have to put 100 percent effort and commitment and you’ll get your chances if you play well and if you work hard.

“For sure, it will be nice to win some tournaments, but it’s never helpful to think about it before. You have to focus on every match specifically and do it step by step, so I’m going to try to do that again.”

With the emphasis on again.

Swiatek, we remind you, is the No. 2 player in the PIF WTA Rankings. It’s been all of eight months since Swiatek won her fourth title at Roland Garros in five years -- the fifth tournament win in a span of less than five months. That fabulous run began in Doha, where Swiatek became the first to win a WTA event for three consecutive years since Serena Williams owned Miami from 2013-15.

Swiatek is looking to become only the second woman this century to win the same tournament four consecutive times, after Caroline Wozniacki in New Haven, from 2008-2011. With all due respect to Connecticut’s Elm City, this is a prestigious WTA Tour 1000 event and would constitute a truly remarkable achievement.

The journey began Monday with a 6-3, 6-2 second-round win over Maria Sakkari. Swiatek, down a break at 3-2 in the first set, won eight straight games to turn it around. Swiatek converted five break points, three more than Sakkari.

Swiatek will play the winner between Linda Noskova and Yulia Putintseva.

After winning the first three matches against Swiatek, Sakkari has lost the past four. She hasn’t put together back-to-back WTA Tour match-wins since last summer’s Olympics.

Swiatek is a gaudy 14-1 in Doha, including 13 straight wins. That winning percentage of .933 isn’t far off her ethereal 35-2, .946 at Roland Garros. What is it about Doha that so suits her game at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex?

“Honestly,” Swiatek said, “hard to say. From what I remember it’s not like I’ve been playing flawlessly, so it’s not like these tournaments were perfect, but at some point always I found some solutions. I think the conditions here are pretty tricky, and I was patient enough to just keep focusing on my game.

“Every year it’s different, every year there is a different story, so it’s hard to compare and hard to find one thing that worked exactly.”

Her signature weapon, the furiously top-spinning forehand, is devastating on this outdoor hard court. It’s not quite as fast as the venues in Australia and it allows her a fraction more time to get set.

A quick review of her Doha dominance:

2022: Defeated Anett Kontaveit in the final, 6-2, 6-0, beating three Top 10 players in succession: No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 6 Sakkari, No. 7 Kontaveit.

2023: Defeated No. 4-ranked Jessica Pegula in the final, 6-3, 6-0, with a scalding total of five games dropped -- the fewest in a WTA event in a quarter-century.

2024: Defeated No. 4 Elena Rybakina in the final, 7-6(8), 6-2.

There were two walkovers along the way, but in those 12 matches, Swiatek lost a total of only 46 games, averaging 3.5 dropped games per match and winning 27 of 28 sets.

Keep in mind that this version of Swiatek is very much a work in progress. She’s been working with veteran coach Wim Fissette since the end of last year but do not, Swiatek said, expect “a sudden revolution in my game or in my preparation.”

Because she played the United Cup in Australia, Swiatek had time for only a two-week training block.

“I feel like he’s been through everything in tennis, probably, so for sure I want to use that experience,” Swiatek said. “I like how he works, and also it’s more like he’s showing me some different ways to do stuff, but also he’s really good at adjusting on how the process looks like before, because obviously it has been working.”

For the next week, she hopes to surf those positive Doha vibes. To all appearances, the pressure of the past is not part of the equation.

“I’m already kind of focusing on the next one,” Swiatek said, “not really coming back to what happened last years.”


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