No.7 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland notched a breakthrough win over one of her toughest opponents in the Qatar TotalEnergies Open semifinals on Friday, defeating No.6 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-4, 6-3.
"Really excited," Swiatek said in her post-match press conference. "For sure I showed consistency throughout the whole tournament, and I'm really happy that I could keep my level of tennis at a really high level."
Swiatek advances to the Doha final for the first time, where she will meet No.4 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia for the title. 2020 Roland Garros champion Swiatek will be going for her fourth career WTA singles title while Kontaveit seeks her seventh.
Fast facts: Swiatek and Sakkari had their first three meetings all last year — and each time Sakkari had won in straight sets. Sakkari was even responsible for ending Swiatek's 2020 Roland Garros title defense in the 2021 quarterfinals.
But Swiatek finally solved the Sakkari riddle in Doha, moving into a WTA 1000 final for the second time in her career, and the first time on a hard court. In her previous WTA 1000 final, Swiatek thumped Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-0 to win the Rome crown last year.
"These matches when I play against players that I really didn't have a good head-to-head before, it shows I did a good job changing that," said Swiatek. "It's like a brand new start for me. Even though I have been on tour and my opponents are the same, I feel like these tournaments are different. That's really great for me."
Against Sakkari, Swiatek was in blistering form, taking the clash in an hour and 28 minutes. Swiatek slammed 20 winners in the affair while allowing Sakkari only nine winners. Each player had eight break points, but Swiatek converted five while Sakkari converted three.
Swiatek has now collected seven Top 10 wins in her career, and two consecutively this week after knocking off top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals.
Key moments: Sakkari grabbed an early break at 2-1 in the first set, but Swiatek used sturdy returning to grit out a tough game and break back for 3-3. Swiatek’s powerful hitting trumped dogged Sakkari defending down the stretch, locking up the one-set lead by breaking the Greek with an incredible forehand winner that clipped the sideline.
The pair exchanged breaks twice in the early going of the second set — including three straight breaks at love from 2-2 to 3-3 — but Swiatek clinched the critical break to move ahead 5-3 after a wide error by Sakkari on break point. A solid error-forcing forehand gave Swiatek her first match point in the following game, and she used that shot again to seal victory.
Final showdown: An all-Top 10 championship match will take place on Saturday, with Swiatek taking on Kontaveit. Their head-to-head is level at 2-2, but Swiatek has won the last two matches which took place last year at Roland Garros and the US Open.
"I felt like [Kontaveit and I] always had good rhythm maybe on court, and that's why the rallies were long," said Swiatek. "We were kind of even in everything.
"I don't know how it's going to be right now, because the last match I played against her was basically before she had that great streak at the end of last year. I'll be ready for anything, honestly. Every match is a different story.
"Anett showed she's really consistent and I really respect that, because how she played during the past few months, it's been amazing. I just hope it's going to be a good show. I hope I'm going to be able to play my game and just look forward."
I said in yesterday's post I had this one was going to be different. I was right, and it feels so good to say that :).
I admit when Iga started crying into her towel at the end I shed a few tears too. You could see how much this win meant to her. How much she's been working on her mentality.
Kontaveit next.
Each time they've played it's been a marathon, so I don't expect it to be easy by any means, but at least Iga will be able to take comfort in the fact she's got a decent H2H.
I'm hoping that will allow her to play more relaxed tomorrow.
Jazda Iga!
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