DOHA – Third seed Elena Rybakina took time to get going but secured a 6-4 6-2 victory over Leylah Fernandez to reach the semi-finals of the Qatar Open and stay on track for her third title of the season.
Top seed and defending champion Iga Swiatek also shook off a wobbly start in windy conditions before booking her place in the last four with a routine 6-4 6-0 win over two-times Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka.
But it was the end of the road for Japan’s four-times Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who went down fighting 7-6(6) 7-6(5) against fellow former world number one Karolina Pliskova in a rematch of their Brisbane meeting last month.
Rybakina, who has lifted the Brisbane and Abu Dhabi trophies this year, dropped serve twice at the start of the clash but the 24-year-old stemmed the flow of errors from her racket and won five games in a row from 4-1 down to claim the opening set.
Fernandez showed more fight in the second set, but the 2021 U.S. Open runner-up could not prevent former Wimbledon champion Rybakina from grabbing two more breaks and powering to victory on the back of some big hitting.
“It was a difficult match. I didn’t start the set well. It took me some time to get used to Leylah’s ball,” Rybakina said according to Reuters after clinching a joint tour-leading 14th win of the season.
“She plays very different. Also a lefty. I’m really happy I managed to win the first one. After that, it was a bit easier to start the second.”
Up next for the Moscow-born Kazakh is a clash with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova after the unseeded Russian reached the Doha semi-finals for the first time following a 7-5 6-4 win over American qualifier Danielle Collins.
“Hopefully it’s going to be a great match to see. We know each other very well on the court and off the court. Hopefully I can recover and show some good tennis,” Rybakina added.
Swiatek, the 2022 and 2023 winner, reeled off the last nine games against former world number one Azarenka to progress.
The 22-year-old Pole is looking to become the first player to win a WTA event three straight times since American Serena Williams claimed the Miami title from 2013-15.
“I’m really happy. Vika’s a great champion. I feel she’s been at the top in terms of the best players I watched when I was younger,” Swiatek said of her 34-year-old opponent.
“I’m proud I can compete on the same court and play against Victoria and win. It’s pretty crazy.”
Swiatek will next face Pliskova, who wrapped up her ninth straight win with a gritty display against Osaka, who displayed more signs that she was rediscovering her best form following a maternity break.
“I have never played good in Qatar, so I always thought conditions were not, like, good for me and for some reason I never felt good playing here, and especially at this level event in these conditions,” Pavlyuchenkova said.
“So now I’m just actually really proud of this even more, because sometimes you play, like I like, for example, Madrid or Roland Garros, and I’m not saying it’s normal that I would play well there, but it’s kind of different where, when you really feel like, ‘OK, this tournament is really tough and I don’t play good here over the years,’ and now you do well, this is more special.”
New mom Osaka came into quarter-final aiming to avenge the first loss of her 2024 comeback, which was to Pliskova in Brisbane in January. As might be expected between two of the tour’s top servers, the match was settled in tiebreaks.
In the first-set breaker, Pliskova was down a mini-break at 5-3, but she followed up a forehand winner with a deft backhand drop shot to reach parity at 5-5. Osaka saved one set point at 6-5, but Pliskova found another sturdy forehand at 7-6 to convert her second set point.
Three lengthy games, with Osaka erasing one match point at 5-4 and two more at 6-5, led the pair into the second-set tiebreak. A double fault from Osaka handed Pliskova a 3-0 lead, but an Osaka return dribbled over the netcord in the next point, and the breaker eventually became competitive again through 5-5.
However, Pliskova queued up a fourth match point, painting the lines in a rally before slamming a forehand winner to reach 6-5. There, Osaka misfired on a return and Pliskova eked out the gripping win.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova booked a spot in the semi-finals of the Qatar Open by winning an all-unseeded quarter-final match against Danielle Collins, 7-5, 6-4 — which earns the former World No.11 her first hard-court semifinal berth at a WTA 1000 in 14 years.
2021 Roland Garros finalist Pavlyuchenkova, competing in her first quarterfinal in Doha after falling in the Round of 16 twice, is through to her four career WTA 1000 semifinal, and her first on any surface since the 2021 Mutua Madrid Open — but she last achieved the feat on hard courts as a 19-year-old at the 2010 Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. Her breakthrough on the Hologic WTA Tour came a year prior, when at 17, she reached the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open.
“I have never played good in Qatar, so I always thought conditions were not, like, good for me and for some reason I never felt good playing here, and especially at this level event in these conditions,” Pavlyuchenkova said afterwards.
“So now I’m just actually really proud of this even more, because sometimes you play, like I like, for example, Madrid or Roland Garros, and I’m not saying it’s normal that I would play well there, but it’s kind of different where, when you really feel like, ‘OK, this tournament is really tough and I don’t play good here over the years,’ and now you do well, this is more special.”
