Swiatek Starts Her Attempt To Win Fourth Consecutive Doha Title With Win Over Sakkari
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Iga Swiatek is a three-time Qatar Open champion, and she started her attempt to win her fourth consecutive title in Doha with a win over Maria Sakkari.
Swiatek has been incredibly successful in Doha. In her first appearance in 2020, the Polish player lost already in the second round to Svetlana Kuznetsova, 2-6, 2-6.
But since then, Swiatek has been on a 12-match winning streak in Doha. In fact, she has won 23 consecutive sets in Qatar before this match, as she lost a set only in her first-round match at the 2022 edition of the tournament.
All of these metrics show just how incredibly dominant the Pole has been in Doha. And this year, she has started her event with another dominant win.
Her first-round opponent at the WTA 1000 event was a challenging one. Maria Sakkari is a former World No. 3 player, but the Greek has struggled with her form recently.
That's why she could meet Swiatek already in the second round in Doha. In the first round, the World No. 29 beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse after the Romanian player's retirement.
In this match, Sakkari started well, too. She had two break points in the first game of the match. Swiatek sometimes has this type of slow start, but she was able to save those two break points with ease.
The Polish player then showed her returning qualities in the next game. She broke and led 2-0 early in this match. But that was also the moment when Sakkari started surprisingly dominating.
Out of nowhere, the Greek player won 12 out of 14 rallies, completely overwhelming the Polish player, who also helped her opponent with some mistakes. Suddenly, the scoreboard showed 3-2 for Sakkari, and she had a one-break advantage.
But that was also the last time that she could win a game in the first set of this match. Although the following games were very close, Swiatek won all of them.
She broke her opponent's serve twice, and despite a nervy start, the former World No. 1 player was able to win the opening set of this match 6-3.
Swiatek won four consecutive games to win the first set, but her game-winning streak didn't end there. From 5-3 and 40-40, the five-time Grand Slam champion won 19 out of 20 rallies, and that got her to a 3-0 and 15-0 lead.
It took only a few minutes, but the match was decided by this streak of points from the Pole. She controlled the remainder of the match, never giving Sakkari a chance to come back.
Swiatek won the match 6-3, 6-2, in an hour and 23 minutes to reach the third round of the 2025 Qatar Open. Her next opponent in Doha will be either Linda Noskova or Yulia Putintseva.
