Iga Swiatek ends Doha campaign in the quarters with loss to Sakkari

After an opening set in which Maria Sakkari absorbed the full brunt of Iga Swiatek’s dominance, it looked as if her own strong run in Doha was about to end.

Instead, the former World No. 3 flipped the match on its head. She was the better player in the second and third sets, rallying to post a stunning 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over the current World No. 2 in just about two and a half and hours. The win sends Sakkari into the Doha semifinals for the third time in her career and the first time in three years.

It also marked her first win over Swiatek in five years, snapping a four-match losing streak in their WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz head-to-head. With Thursday’s result, the series is now level at 4-4.

“I’m speechless because it’s been a while since I had a big win like today,” Sakkari said in her on-court interview. “When you drop in the rankings and you’re not playing good tennis, you start doubting yourself. And you’re thinking that you’re never going to beat those players again.

“So it’s a huge process that you have to go through in your head, that you know you can do it. Last year in the second round here against (Swiatek), I was not confident. I was not believing in myself. And this year, it’s different. I feel quite a lot better.”

It’s her first win over a Top 5 player since she defeated Coco Gauff in Miami 2024. More importantly, it extends a week in which Sakkari has seemingly rediscovered the level that once carried her into and kept her inside the Top 10 for the better part of three years.

She opened the tournament with three consecutive straight-set victories over Zeynep Sonmez, No. 6 seed Jasmine Paolini and Varvara Gracheva en route to the quarterfinals before toppling Swiatek. In doing so, she dethroned the Doha queen, handing Swiatek just her third loss in 21 matches at the event in a thrilling bit of theater that unfolded over three acts.

Act 1: Same old Iga

As is often the case when Swiatek steps on court, she entered as a heavy favorite. She had beaten Sakkari four straight time -- all in straight sets -- and was coming off a Round of 16 win in which she shook off a slow start against Daria Kasatkina before dominating the final two sets, dropping just two games between them.

She continued that momentum into Thursday’s opening set. After breaking for a 3-2 lead with a forehand winner, she reeled off four straight games to take the set in just 33 minutes. It was the result of quintessential Swiatek efficiency: she won 13 of 14 first-serve points, claimed nearly half the points on return and converted both break points she earned.

Act 2: Sakkari strikes back

But Sakkari refused to fold. She surged ahead 3-0 and then 4-1 in the second set, leaning heavily on her backhand -- a weapon that would serve her well again later.

Swiatek responded by winning three straight games, punctuated by a hold to love to level at 4-all. She then earned two break points that, if converted, would’ve allowed her to serve for the match, but Sakkari saved both. She cemented the hold with a forehand winner followed by an on-target body serve on game point.

Sakkari then broke Swiatek with ease in the next game to take the second set and force a decider, marking the first time the pair had ever gone the distance in eight meetings

Act 3: Return of Sakkari

The final set delivered the evening’s peak drama. After Swiatek recovered from 0-30 to hold for 1-1, Sakkari struck first two games later, breaking for a 3-1 lead. It sparked a run of three straight breaks before Sakkari became the first to consolidate, racing ahead 5-2 to move within a game of victory.

She opened the game with a forehand winner, but Swiatek again applied pressure, earning two break points. Sakkari saved the second with a brilliant backhand pass, her first point won on second serve in the decider after starting 0-for- 5.

Swiatek mounted one last push, mirroring the one she made in the second set, and won three straight games. She held for 5-3, then broke Sakkari as she was serving for the match in a game that included a tense video review of a possible double bounce. The call eventually went Sakkari’s way, but Swiatek secured the break a few points later anyway. She then saved a match point with her best serve of the day -- an ace out wide --and held once more to level at 5-5.

But as she had shown all week, Sakkari was undeterred. She halted Swiatek's run with a hold to love for 6-5, then converted her third match point when Swiatek missed a brutal volley at the net, sealing one of the biggest wins of her career.

With the victory, Sakkari became the first player to defeat Swiatek in a WTA 1000 match after losing the opening set, dropping Swiatek’s record in such matches to 109-1. She also reached her 11th career WTA 100 semifinal, and her first since she reached the final at Indian Wells in 2024. It’s her first tour-level semifinal of any kind since Charleston 2024.

She’ll face Karolina Muchova, who defeated Anna Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-4 Thursday, for a spot in her first final in two years -- the last coming at Indian Wells. Sakkari is 0-4 against Muchova at the WTA level, though she does own a win over the Czech from an ITF event in Sharm El Sheikh in 2016.


"I'm really happy I was able to turn that second set," Muchova said to WTA Media. "I got that break back and was able to finish in two because it's very late and tomorrow's another match.

"I watched (Sakkari's) match today against Iga, and they both played incredible. It's going to be a tough one but very happy to be in the semis".

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Seems like the 2nd set concentration issues continue to be a concern for Iga. Part of that might be that she has lost a lot of her locker room aura over the past couple of years (especially after losing at Roland Garros last year and not winning a title on the clay). 

She got it back at Wimbledon a little, but not quite on the hard courts. 

So because her aura eroded somewhat all players have more belief that if they hang around and fight even after losing the first set they can beat Iga. 

Hopefully Iga can find that mental toughness and concentration back which will in turn help get her front runner confidence back so she can close matches in straights. 

I'm staying positive that she'll rediscover it again before this hard court swing is through, I'll only slightly panic if she doesn't find it on the clay in April. 

Despite this loss it was nice to see her being brave and using variety with slices, dropshots and coming to the net. It's the kind of variety she had pre-Wiktorowski before she was even a top ten household name. 

So really encouraging in that respect, you can see she's putting in the work it just hasn't quite clicked yet. 

Contrary to what internet couch experts think it's going to take time, whether it's the serve (which is everyone's chief complaint) or anything else in her game.

Of course it's extremely hard to find time to work on improving anything while on tour so I'm still very much curious to see which tournaments Iga decides to skip. 

Something tells me it won't be Dubai next week, simply because Rybakina is so close to Iga in ranking points that she might want to at least give herself a chance to defend them (I believe she reached the quarters last year). 

Hell Rybakina almost became #2 today but but a defeat to young Canadian Vicky Mboko helped to delay that for the moment. 

As I said during Aussie Open my best bet would be on Iga skipping Miami or possibly Indian Wells (though she has semi final points to defend). Miami would give her more time to prepare for the clay so it'd make more sense (though she's got quarterfinal points to defend as well).

Tough choice indeed, but I really hope she makes one here. It would really benefit her in the long run this year I think.

Believe in the process Iga, see you in the next tournament (where ever that will be). 

Jazda!

Iga Swiatek battles past Kasatkina to make another Doha Quarterfinal

 

Top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland advanced to the quarterfinals of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open with a three-set win over Australia's Daria Kasatkina on Wednesday in Doha.

Swiatek had not lost more than three games in a set against Kasatkina in their previous six meetings on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz and looked set to continue that streak as she built a 5-3 lead in the opening set. But Kasatkina, a former world No. 8, rallied to win the next four games and take the set 7-5.

The Pole responded by winning the next two sets for the loss of just two games to complete a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 victory in 2 hours, 17 minutes. She improves to 7-1 lifetime against Kasatkina.

Swiatek converted eight of 18 break points (44.4%), while the Australian converted four of 12 (33.3%). Kasatkina also struggled on her second serve, winning 24.1% of second-serve points (7 of 29).

"It wasn't an easy match," she said to press. "Even in second and third set I had to do a lot to win rallies against Daria. I think I gave her more chances. She used the slower surface here, and she was going for it more, compared to last matches.

"I felt like I could do sometimes more in the first set. Yeah, didn't really adjust well to the colder conditions and the wind. For sure it's a lesson for next days."

Swiatek, who won the title in Doha three consecutive years from 2022-24, is through to the quarterfinals here for the fifth time in her career. Only Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska have reached the quarterfinals in Doha more often, with six each.

Swiatek will next face former world No. 3 Maria Sakkari, who beat France’s Varvara Gracheva 7-5, 6-0 to reach the last eight.

Sakkari has now won three consecutive WTA main-draw matches for the first time since reaching the round of 16 in Madrid last year and for the first time on hard court since reaching the Indian Wells final two years ago.

Sakkari won the first three meetings between the pair, all in straight sets in 2021. Swiatek has since won their next four meetings, also all in straight sets, including a 6-3, 6-2 win in the second round here last year.

“Iga is very solid but at the same time, she's very aggressive,” Sakkari said after her win vs. Gracheva. “She moves the ball really well. She moves very good on the court. She doesn't give you a lot of errors. So it's going to be a huge challenge for me. When we played last year here, it was an easy score but it wasn't an easy match, I have to say.”

Likewise, Swiatek is also prepared, heading into the match with a with four straight wins against Sakkari.

"Overall I think my level improved in 2022 so I could do a bit more, had more variety, and could push a little bit more," Swiatek said. "But against Maria, it's always tough. It's always like every game matters, every point matters."

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1 - Iga Swiatek now has reached the quarterfinals in 61.9% (26/42) of the WTA-1000 events she has appeared in, surpassing Serena Williams (61.2%, 30/49) for the best since the format introduction in 2009. Stunning.


5 - Iga Swiatek is only the second player to reach the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open in five consecutive years after Agnieszka Radwanska between 2012-16. Victory.

Iga Swiatek opens Doha campaign with confident win

Top-seeded Iga Swiatek scored a comfortable straight-sets win over Indonesian wild card Janice Tjen to reach the third round of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha on Tuesday.

Playing her first match since a quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open, Swiatek dominated the opening set, dropping just eight points in a 6-0 win.

The second set was more competitive as Tjen displayed the form that has seen her rise from outside the top 400 at the start of the 2025 season to her current ranking of No. 46 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz. After the players traded early breaks, Swiatek broke in the eighth game and held to close out a 6-0, 6-3 victory in 1 hour, 9 minutes.

23: Swiatek improved to 23 career match-wins combined in Doha and Dubai. Only former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki has more (25) since the WTA 1000 format was introduced in 2009.

31: Swiatek has won 31 consecutive WTA-level matches against players ranked outside the top 20. Her last loss to a player outside the top 20 came in Rome last May, when she fell to Danielle Collins in the round of 32.

32: Swiatek extended her streak of consecutive opening-match wins at WTA 1000 events to 32. Her last opening-match loss at a WTA 1000 came in Cincinnati in 2021 against Ons Jabeur

36: Swiatek recorded her 36th 6-0 set at WTA 1000 events, the most by any player since the format’s introduction in 2009. When asked if she ever thought about giving away a game to her opponents when it comes to such situations, Swiatek responded, "I think when I was younger, I felt that way, but later on, you just want to win it. It's sports. It doesn't make sense to stop or to play 80%. I'm there to perform my best, so I felt always that you wouldn't be respectful towards the opponent if give them something, because we're here to play our best. I always try to just focus on myself and that's it."

72: Swiatek is now 72-0 in opening matches across her last 72 WTA events played, including the United Cup and WTA Finals. Her last opening match loss at a WTA event came against Maria Sakkari at the 2021 WTA Finals in Guadalajara.

"It's always nice to start a tournament in a solid way and I'm ready for every match," Swiatek said when asked about this streak by the media in Doha. "I think that's the reason for that. I don't take anything for granted, so even first rounds or second rounds, I treat them as super important matches and as a challenge. So I'm ready for it from the beginning."

Swiatek will next face former top-10 player Daria Kasatkina in the Round of 16. The Australian scored a 6-4, 6-0 win over 16h seed Elise Mertens of Belgium earlier in the day.

Swiatek leads the head-to-head 6-1 over Kasatkina and has won their last six meetings without dropping a set. But she is not taking the match lightly.

"Honestly I try not to think about head-to-head because every match is a different story," Swiatek said. "She can come to the match feeling that she has nothing to lose. There are different ways the match can go, and I wouldn't say that focusing on the last results gives a lot. I'd rather stay ready for the challenge and not really think about the previous ones."

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Iga Swiatek Doha 2026 photoshoot

 

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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Iga Swiatek defends Doha, wins 12th career title

 

World No.1 Iga Swiatek successfully defended her title at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open on Saturday, sweeping past fourth-ranked Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-0 in the Doha final.


No.1 seed Swiatek topped No.2 seed Pegula to capture her first Hologic WTA Tour title of the year, and the 12th title of her career overall. Swiatek dropped only five games all week en route to the title.


"I'm really happy that I could kind of find more balance, comparing to how I felt at the beginning of the season," Swiatek said, after her win. "I think this tournament is going to give me a lot of confidence, but still, I want to take everything step by step. I'm just really happy that I could win this match today."


Fast facts: Swiatek had already lost to Pegula this year at United Cup, but the No.1 seed overwhelmingly avenged that defeat in the 1-hour and 9-minute Doha final. Swiatek now holds a 5-2 lead over Pegula in their head-to-head.

For the second year in a row, Doha is the site of Swiatek’s first title of the season. Last year, her Doha title run was the start of something big -- a 37-match winning streak, culminating in her second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.

Swiatek also becomes the first player to defend a Hologic WTA Tour singles title since she won her second straight Rome title in May of last year.

"Every game I was really focused, and that's the thing I'm most happy about, because at the beginning of the season I felt like my mind was kind of flying away sometimes," Swiatek said. "But here, the work we have put in with my coach on court and with Daria off the court, for sure, it just paid off, and I felt like everything is clicking."

Match moments: Swiatek used heavy replies off of the Pegula service to go up a break at both 2-0 and 4-2, but Pegula immediately broke back each time, forcing Swiatek into errors by using her exceptional speed to extend rallies.

Nevertheless, the top seed again attacked the Pegula delivery with more thunderous returns to break for a 5-3 lead. This time, Swiatek would not be pulled back level, as she powered to a love hold to take the one-set lead.

After a close opening set, Swiatek had things almost entirely her own way in the second set. Swiatek won 73 percent of points returning Pegula's second service in the match, leading to six service breaks on the day.

"Yesterday it kind of hit me that even though it's windy, I can use the wind properly and kind of use my intuition to sometimes imagine that I should play shorter, or on the other hand, play with more topspin so the wind is going to kind of take this ball even further," Swiatek said.

"So today I just kind of continued that, but I didn't really want to overanalyze that, and I just kind of played how my intuition told me. It's nice, because usually I'm basing everything on my tactics and on the technique that I'm working on. But here I felt like I could just reset that and play more freely without overthinking."

wtatennis.com

Another masterclass from Iga. 

I will give Pegula credit she really made Iga work for it especially in the first set with constantly breaking back whenever Iga forged ahead. 

And even at match point it took Iga 4 tries to get over the line. 

In set 2 Iga just took it to another level as she always seems to be able to do in finals. And it takes something really special to stop her (as Krejcikova did in a titanic 3 hour battle in Ostrava last year).

She lost just 5 games en route to this triumph (a record that hasn't been seen in a significant number of years). 

And already notched 3 bagel sets for the year (I believe it's 5 over all with the Australian swing). 

Just otherworldly stuff from the World #1.

Onward to Dubai!. 

Where Iga has a pretty tough draw, and we'll see the return of Sabalenka. 

But honestly with this sort of level from Iga, I say good luck WTA Tour. 

Jazda!

Iga Swiatek sweeps past Kudermetova faces Pegula in Doha final

World No.1 and defending champion Iga Swiatek returned to the final of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open with a commanding 6-0, 6-1 win over No.8 seed Veronika Kudermetova in Friday's semifinals.

Swiatek is through to her first final of 2023 as a result of the victory, and she'll bid for her 12th career title on Saturday against No.2 seed Jessica Pegula.

Swiatek stays dominant: Swiatek improved to 3-0 all-time against Kudermetova with a 56-minute victory in Doha. Swiatek has lost just eight games in six sets in the head-to-head, and also lost just one game in their third-round meeting in Indian Wells a year ago.

Swiatek coped with blustery conditions the better of the two players. She hit 14 winners to five unforced errors, breaking Kudermetova's serve five times. Kudermetova hit just four winners to 15 unforced errors, and never earned a break point.

"I was pretty worried about how I was going to compete with the conditions today, so I'm glad that I could play the smart way," Swiatek said in victory. "I'm pretty happy that I was so solid."

Swiatek has lost just two games in two completed matches in Doha. She beat 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins by an identical score to her win against Kudermetova in Round 2, and benefitted from a walkover from Belinda Bencic in the quarterfinals.

No.1 vs. No.2 up next: Swiatek will meet No.2 seed Pegula in Saturday's final after the top-ranked American edged Maria Sakkari in three sets in Friday's other semifinal.

Swiatek leads the pair's all-time head-to-head 4-2, but Pegula won their first meeting in 2023 last month at the United Cup.

"It always takes a lot to win against Jessie. She's a great player, a really solid one," Swiatek said. "We'll see, honestly. I'm not going to predict anything or over-analyze. I'm just going to go out and play my best tennis, and we'll see."

Hoping for a repeat: Swiatek is bidding to be the first player to defend a title on the Hologic WTA Tour in 2023. She, in fact, was the last player to complete the feat at last year's Internazional BNL d'Italia in Rome.

wtatennis.com

Rematch and revenge.

Time to tick that H2H against Pegula further in your favor. 

Jazda Iga!

 

Iga Swiatek breezes past Collins makes semis of Doha via walkover

World No.1 Iga Swiatek made a triumphant return to competition at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open. Swiatek raced past No.42 Danielle Collins 6-0, 6-1 and is into the semifinals after her quarterfinal opponent Belinda Bencic withdrew from the tournament due to fatigue.



Last season, Swiatek kicked off her 37-match win streak in Doha, where she captured her first WTA 1000 hard-court title. Playing her first match since the Australian Open, the reigning champion showed no signs of rust against Collins, as she built a 3-0 lead after just 10 minutes and pocketed the opening set in just 21 minutes.

"[I felt] pretty confident," Swiatek told reporters. "I'm happy that I was kind of composed and from the beginning till the end pretty focused and disciplined with tactics.

"I didn't really let Danielle get into the rhythm. I wanted to be aggressive. I'm pretty happy that I did that well."

With the American struggling to find her range, Swiatek lost just four points in the opening set. In the face of Swiatek's dynamic defending and pin-point serving, Collins was unable to hit a winner in the opening set, while misfiring on 13 unforced errors.

Collins leveled up in the second set, snapping Swiatek's nine-game run to get on the board at 3-1. But Swiatek refused to let her own level drop, as she steadily marched toward the finish line to seal the win after 53 minutes.

Key stats: Swiatek finished the match with eight winners to just six unforced errors, breaking Collins' serve five times. She did not face a break point in the match. Collins matched Swiatek with eight winners, but tallied 22 unforced errors in the match. She won just 31.6% of her first-serve points.

Up next: Swiatek was set to face Bencic in Thursday's quarterfinals, but the Abu Dhabi champion withdrew from the tournament after notching a physical, hard-fought victory over Victoria Azarenka.

Swiatek will now face either No.4 seed Coco Gauff or Veronika Kudermetova in the semifinals on Friday.

wtatennis.com

Safe to say Iga's reset since Australia has been a resounding success. and she's back to dazzling form once more. 

I am constantly amazed how well she handles disappointments and loss, goes right back to work, and comes back stronger than before. 

 

Champions Corner: How Swiatek solved the puzzle in Doha

Iga Swiatek captured her fourth career title in dominant fashion, dropping only one set en route to the title at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open. The Polish star now has a Slam and two WTA 1000 titles under her belt before the age of 21 and will return to her career-high No.4 on Monday.

But it was the way Swiatek won Doha that left the biggest impression. Long thought of as a clay-court specialist - even she bought into the description - Swiatek has quickly proved she's a top-level threat on hard courts this year. Under the tutelage of veteran coach Tomasz Witkorowski, Swiatek began the season with a run to the Adelaide semifinals, followed by her first Slam semifinal on a hard court at the Australian Open.

Then en route to the biggest hard-court title of her career in Doha, Swiatek defeated three Top 10 players at a single event for the first time in her career. She followed a win over No.2 Aryna Sabalenka with her first win in four matches against No.6 Maria Sakkari. In the final she snapped No.7 Anett Kontaveit's nine-match winning streak, losing only two games in a 6-2. 6-0 win.

"[Tomasz] convinced me to change my approach towards my tennis," Swiatek said. "I am being more aggressive right now and I love that. At first I wasn't really convinced, so yeah, big thanks to him for showing me this different perspective.

"Practicing in Warsaw is a totally different story than going on tour, so I'm pretty happy the last few weeks have shown that we have a good relationship, and we have also like good mood in our team. We have fun. And it was always important for me to other members of the team to have a good relationship between each other, so I can have full support but also feel comfortable around them. They are giving me a lot."

Swiatek joined the WTA Insider Podcast from Doha to reflect on her new mindset and approach to her game and how her Doha run was different from her first three titles. She explains why she's now at peace after enduring many sleepless nights during the off-season.

WTA Insider: Congratulations on your fourth title. You've had tough matches against Anett in the past. What do you think was the key to your win in Saturday's match? It seemed that you were able to hold her off in the first set and then ran away with it.

Swiatek: It's true, I'm pretty proud of that because my goal for the whole tournament, and basically for my new kind of tennis, is to put pressure on my opponents. Today you could see that I did that pretty well.

I was actually thinking before the match, what is the thing that she changed in her game that made her win so many tournaments and actually have this kind of record? I wanted to not let her do that, to be aggressive first and to lead on attack.

I know I'm saying that after every match, basically. But it's kind of important for me because I wasn't able to do that before against heavy hitters. I did that against Aryna here and against really solid players who are playing great topspin, like Kasatkina or Sakkari. Against Anett, it's kind of a mix of everything. She can play anything. I'm really proud of that because that just shows that we're doing a good job for me to get more variety in my tennis.

WTA Insider: You've spoken a lot this week about this variety that you now have in your game. What do you mean by that?

Swiatek: It's not a complicated thing. I was working pretty hard on my attack formations. I always felt that I'm really good at defense and I want to be as good and feel really comfortable as well when I'm going forward. So it's pretty easy, but at the end it's up to the details, you know?

Even though obviously I could attack, because I had a good ranking since a few years ago, it still didn't mean that I can beat those heavy hitters and play Top 5 or Top 10 tennis. Right now I feel I can do that because I just have more options and I can choose between them when I'm playing against some players. Obviously I'm not going to use each of them in every match but I just have in the back of my mind that even when I'm a break down or something, I still have skills to solve my problems and to play better.

WTA Insider: Your win over Sabalenka in the quarterfinals was particularly impressive. She's the biggest hitter on the tour but you were able to outhit her. How big was that win for you and how did it set you up for your wins over Sakkari and Kontaveit?

Swiatek: Well, for me, the most amazing thing was that I could keep that level of tennis. I could just continue doing the same stuff I did against not only Aryna but against Kasatkina as well. You could see the effects of that work mostly against Aryna because she's the most powerful player.

But for me this consistency and stability is the most important thing because I felt many times in my life that a few rounds of the tournament I'm playing good, and then suddenly my level of game is going down and I don't even know why, you know? Right now, I feel like I have more control over stuff. This is really cool. Even though it's not the thing that you're going to be most excited about because you can't sometimes even see it, it's giving me a lot of peace.

WTA Insider: With your success to start the season, you must be feeling good about your decision to bring Tomasz on.

Swiatek: Yes, for sure. It's relaxing because I'm feeling like I can have more peace of mind until the end of the season because it's also going to be easier to get into the WTA Finals or whatever my goal is going to be. Because at the end of last year it was pretty chaotic in terms of choosing which tournaments to play or not. Right now, I have this experience and also I have a more solid game at the beginning of the season.

Actually, it hit me after the match against Maria yesterday that this decision was actually a good one. I knew that, but after that match I thought whoa, I did something I couldn't do before. I think it's because of the new coach. Obviously, it's because I'm also developing and I'm mentally also better. But I would say that tactically and this new approach that I have in my mind, it gave me a lot and it showed that right now I can beat these kind of players like Maria or Aryna.

I cried a little bit after that match because I thought I had so many sleepless nights making a decision. But at the end, this decision was a good one for me, so I felt relief and I felt pretty proud of myself that I was able to do that.

WTA Insider: How much convincing did it take for you to buy into this new attacking mindset with respect to your game?

Swiatek: Well, the thing is that it's not like we started doing that, like, two months ago. When I was working with Piotr, he also was trying to implement that. I would say I was more stubborn back then. We were talking about that many times.

But actually, I think the last season showed me a lot because I was playing against such powerful players like Ostapenko in Indian Wells, Aryna, Badosa, who I played in Tokyo, which really hurt. And against Maria, she also can hit the ball really flat and low and hard. I thought, "Hey, something is missing in my game." I think I needed the whole preseason to work on that and to see that I can control these fast balls.

I think the best way to convince me is to show me that I'm able to do something, When I actually realized that I was like, "OK, I'm going to try that in matches now."

WTA Insider: You won Roland Garros playing your more "clay-court style" of game. It was successful. It could be difficult for a lot of players to move away from what had been a successful game style.

Swiatek: The thing is, at the end I always thought, hey, you can always come back to how you played before, but don't waste time. If there is something you can actually improve or get better at, I was always the kind of person who didn't want to waste time.

Why would I argue if I haven't tried something? I just wanted to do that. I realized that maybe it makes sense, but we will see. And I thought also, if it's not going to make sense, then I can say, hey, I was right.

WTA Insider: This new aggressive game style, does it come naturally for you at this point? Or do you have to really work to be mindful and get yourself to play this way?

Swiatek: No, come on. Honestly, I have to force myself to do everything because sometimes I'm talking to Daria and I'm like, should I even be thinking about going low on my legs? I'm doing this for so many years now. It should be natural. But no, everything I have to think through and I have to remember that stuff.

That's why tennis is so hard because you have so much time on court to get distracted. That's one thing. And the other thing is you have so many technical details or tactical to think about at once that it's sometimes hard to choose the proper one. But no, it's not natural.

I guess that's why it's hard to be an athlete because not many things are natural. Obviously, we all have talent. But I don't know, actually. Maybe for other players it's more natural.

There is some technical stuff that's kind of easy and there are some that you've been doing wrong for some time. Now you have to take care of that and do it right and suddenly change your habits. So this is also pretty tricky. But I like it.

WTA Insider: How do you plan to celebrate this win?

Swiatek: Well, I'm not an expert on celebrating. Maybe the celebration is actually not thinking about tennis for a while. There's so much tennis in our lives that I think we have to cut everything off sometimes. So I'm going to have a few days when I'm going to see my friends. I'm going to use my driving license finally and drive the car in Warsaw a little bit.

I just want to chill out. I'm not the kind of person who's going to go to a party or something. I want to basically also physically come back fresh. This tournament was pretty hard for me physically. Even though I played just two sets, I felt like this aggressive game is really intense for my body.

wtatennis.com

Iga Swiatek Doha Champion!

                             

Iga Swiatek charged to her first title of the season on Saturday, as the No.7 seed from Poland cruised past No.4 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-2, 6-0 to win the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha.

In an overpowering display of all-court mastery, Swiatek took just over an hour to sweep to victory at the WTA 1000 event and end St. Petersburg champion Kontaveit's nine-match winning streak.

Fast facts: Swiatek has now racked up four WTA singles titles in her career, and it is her second WTA 1000 crown. Her previous WTA 1000 title came in Rome last year, where she dispatched Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-0 in the final.

Swiatek famously triumphed at the clay-court Grand Slam event at Roland Garros in 2020 for her first career title, but she now has just as many hard-court titles as clay-court titles in her career, with two apiece.

The 20-year-old Pole continues to dominate in finals once she gets to them. Since her only runner-up finish on tour, at Lugano in 2019, Swiatek has dropped a total of 11 games in the four finals she has won:

Iga Swiatek’s last 4 finals: 2020 Roland Garros: 64 61, Kenin 2021 Adelaide: 62 62, Bencic 2021 Rome: 60 60, Pliskova 2022 Doha: 62 60, Kontaveit Lost a total of 2 games in her 2 WTA 1000 finals.

Kontaveit came into the match having reached more finals and won more matches than anyone on tour since the start of 2021 — this was her ninth final during that stretch, and she has prevailed in 61 matches within that timeframe.

But Swiatek refused to fall into any of Kontaveit's traps on the day, winning a staggering 66 percent of points returning the Kontaveit serve and saving six of the seven break points she faced (six of which came in the first set).

Swiatek is now 3-2 against Kontaveit, and the Pole has won their last three meetings, including at Roland Garros and the US Open last season. Swiatek has now won three matches in a row against Top 10 opposition this week, improving to 8-7 overall against that cohort.

Command performance: After falling behind an early break to Swiatek, Kontaveit looked to be back in the hunt after she slammed a forehand winner down the line to break back for 2-2. However, that would prove to be her final appearance on the scoreboard.

Swiatek quickly regained her break lead in the following game, then kept using aggressive returns to take control of many points from the outset. Serving for the set at 5-2, Swiatek calmly erased two break points before closing out the one-set lead.

There were almost no problems for Swiatek in the second set, which she raced through in less than half an hour. Kontaveit kept games close in the opening stages of the set, but there was no stopping the Swiatek power game as the Polish player continued her sterling form in finals.

wtatennis.com

What can I say about Iga Swiatek when it comes to finals?. 

They seem to always bring out her best level. I really think that Sakkari win the day prior was a real weight off her shoulders. 

She played with real abandon because she already achieved such a huge mile stone by finally beating her Greek rival. 

In doing so it showed that she felt fearless on court today.

The skill with which she was able to return Kontaveit's serve was something to marvel at. 

I did not expect this level of dominance from Iga given how unbeatable Anett has been going back to last year. 

Iga beat the 2nd most in-form hard court player (the other being Ostapendko) with such extreme ease, it was almost otherworldly. 

She now owns 4 titles, one of which a Grand Slam at 20 years old. 

This girl's talent knows no bounds. 

Agnieszka Radwandska made 5 semi finals in Doha but never won it, or a Grand Slam in her whole career.  

What Iga achieved, and keeps achieving in her young career is beyond incredible. 

Well done Iga!. 

Enjoy this win to the fullest, get some well deserved rest. 

You've made Poland so proud. See you at Indian Wells. 

Jazda!