Rybakina sets up final with Swiatek
Doha: Defending champion and world number one Iga Swiatek was on Friday handed a walkover into the Qatar TotalEnergies Open final where Elena Rybakina will stand in her way of a third successive title at the event. Four-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek had been scheduled to face Karolina Pliskova in her semi-final.
However, the Czech, who won the Cluj tournament in Romania last weekend, withdrew suffering from a lower back injury.
Pliskova had won her last nine matches, but her first three matches in Qatar all went to a third set and she needed two tie breaks to beat Naomi Osaka 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/5) in two sets in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina was stronger at the key moments as she beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-4 to reach today’s final. Rybakina, the third seed, converted four of six break points while her unseeded opponent could only exploit one of the nine she had.
“I am happy that in the end I managed to finish the match, playing a little better in these important moments,” Rybakina, who represents Kazakhstan, said in her on-court interview.
Rybakina broke Pavlyuchenkova in the fifth game of the opening set and broke again in the eighth. Pavlyuchenkova saved three set points in the next game but also squandered a break point of her own before succumbing. “The first set it was very close, we were both fighting,” said Rybakina.
Rybakina broke easily in the second-set opener before holding serve to take a sixth straight game. Pavlyuchenkova held to end that streak and then had six break points in the next game, but could take none of them.
She finally converted her eighth break point as she came back from 30-0 down in the eighth game. She then held serve as Rybakina wobbled on her forehand. With Rybakina serving for the match, Pavlyuchenkova had another break point but hit long. She saved one match point but Rybakina then produced an ace to seal victory. The 32-year-old Pavlyuchenkova is finding her form again after a long struggle with a knee injury. “Great to see her back,” said Rybakina. She played really well. It was a really tough match.”
On facing Swiatek in the final, she added: “I think we both know each other pretty well, and of course we trying to study and analyse. For now it was going my way, but as I said, she’s playing really good. I think she’s a little bit fresher than me, that’s for sure, but for me it was already a very positive two weeks, so I try to push myself tomorrow and see how it’s gonna go. For me the most important is try to recover physically, because with Iga, it’s a lot about the physics, of course. She’s making you work for every point, and of course I need to stay aggressive and play my game, but we see what can I do tomorrow.”
Rybakina is aiming for a third title this year, after winning in Adelaide and last week in Abu Dhabi. Swiatek will enter today’s final on an 11-match winning streak in Doha, having won her last 21 sets at the tournament. Overall, her career win-loss record at the event is 12-1, with her only defeat coming in the 2020 second round to Svetlana Kuznetsova. The World No.1 is looking to become the first woman to win three straight titles at a single Hologic WTA Tour event since Serena Williams completed a hat trick at the Miami Open from 2013-15.
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