Swiatek holds off Rybakina to capture Qatar Open crown

DOHA: Top seed Iga Swiatek overcame a gritty challenge by world number four Elena Rybakina to take home the Qatar Open title for the third straight year with a 7-6(8) 6-2 victory in Saturday’s final.

The 22-year-old Pole, who raced to her 12th consecutive match win in Doha, became the first player to capture a singles title at an event in three successive years since Serena Williams triumphed in Miami from 2013-15.

The win also improved her head-to-head record over Rybakina to 3-2, having lost on all three occasions last year. Swiatek endured a slow start as she went 4-1 down in a roller-coaster opening set before the four-times Grand Slam champion slowly found her groove to level things up at 4-4.

After the set went into a tiebreaker, the momentum swung back and forth before Swiatek wrapped up the 90-minute-long set with a well-executed backhand winner. “It was really long, I wasn’t expecting that. It was really tough,” Swiatek said while describing the marathon first set.

“I came here and was pretty stressed... I felt the expectations. I wanted to do everything step-by-step, as I always do, and it worked... I’m really happy. I’m really proud of myself. “Congrats to Elena for a great tournament and to her team. We have already played so many tough matches that I think it’s going to be great if we continue, have fun and give a nice experience to the fans.”

Rybakina had taken a medical timeout after hitting her own leg during the opening set and that seemed to hamper the 24-year-old Kazakh as Swiatek wasted no time to take the second set and secure her first WTA 1000 title of the year.