Doha, (Samajweekly) Poland’s Iga Swiatek, the No 7th seed in the world, notched a breakthrough win over No.6 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece.
The 6-4, 6-3 win against Sakkari helped Swiatek eeach the final.
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.
gainst 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.
