Iga Swiatek has been sensational at the Qatar Open in Doha, winning the event in 2022 and 2023, and so far, 2024 hasn't been that much worse, either.
The Polish player was taking on Ekaterina Alexandrova in her second match at this year's event. The first match was a dominant win over Sorana Cirstea, who is a really solid player.
Alexandrova didn't fare much better against Swiatek, even though she kept herself pretty competitive at times. The opening set was a demonstration of Swiatek's force, who didn't allow Alexandrova to do much damage, winning the opening set 6-1.
The opening set lasted only 31 minutes, and it was mostly the Polish player dominating how she generally does it. She simply overwhelmed her opponent from the baseline in a manner only Swiatek can do.
Alexandrova is also a pretty strong hitter, but she's not consistent with it. Oftentimes, she'd find herself simply unable to match several consecutive good shots by Swiatek.
She could have countered Swiatek with her serve, but she didn't serve all that well in the opening set. The second set was much better, though she didn't deserve all that better.
However, she played much better in the rallies, stepping up a level that sometimes gave Swiatek some problems. The Polish player was still better, of course, but some occasional misfiring kept the score pretty close.
She would only break once in that second set. That was the only service game on the serve of Alexandrova where Swiaetk had break points. She had to save a couple of, too, but ultimately, it worked out well for her.
The final score was 6-1, 6-4 for Swiatek as she won her 10th consecutive match in Doha. She won the previous two editions, and this year, the world no. 1 will attempt to add the third win.
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