DOHA — World number one Iga Swiatek of Poland won the Qatar Open for the third year in a row after beating Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 7-6 (10/8), 6-2 in the final.
Swiatek is the first player to win three straight titles at the same WTA event since Serena Williams completed a Miami Open hat-trick from 2013-15.
“You don’t even know hard it was not to think about it,” said Swiatek, whose record now stands at now 13-1 in Doha since her 2020 debut.
The Pole dropped only 11 games en route to the final, where she faced her biggest test against big-hitting Rybakina.
“I never knew that it’s so special to win three times in a row,” Swiatek said. “But I would say that it happens when you actually don’t know about it, so I don’t aim to break any records. I’m just playing tennis, and that’s all.”
“I’m happy that I kept working and just didn’t really think about too many stuff during this week and just focused on the right things, because I think it was the key,” Swiatek said during the trophy ceremony.
“Coming here and being kind of the double-defending champion wasn’t easy. So I’m happy that I have this experience already, and hopefully I’m going to use it.”
“I thought I’m gonna lose here in second round,” Swiatek said according to wtatennis. “I wasn’t feeling really confident before the tournament. I didn’t also have some peaceful time at home to just focus on working, so I wasn’t really expecting a lot.”
Swiatek is now the first player to win the Doha title more than two times in her career. And even more impressive is that she’s done it consecutively, winning 12 matches in a row—including 22 straight sets—at the Khalifa International Tennis Center.
“I had the momentum and it was quite tough. Even though it was 4-1, we were both fighting,” Rybakina said of that break afterward.
“Of course it was a bit unlucky, because if it was not really (bleeding a lot), I would have continued, because it was not the right moment for me to stop. Unfortunately it took too long.”
Swiatek, who used the medical time out to have a chat with her coaching team including Tomasz Wiktorowski, returned more settled after the stoppage and broke serve straightaway.
From there the comeback was on, as Swiatek reeled off four games in a row and held toe-to-toe with Rybakina into the first-set tiebreaker.
She needed four set points, and saved one of her own at 6/7, before closing out the one hour and 27-minute long set—a set that by itself was longer than any of Swiatek’s matches leading into the final.
Surrounded by the best athletes in the world, Swiatek is freakishly endowed. But while her athleticism is truly exceptional, maybe we should give more credit to her grit. On Saturday, she started without her best stuff and found a path to survival in that 90-minute first set, saving a set point in the process. Once ahead, she was relentless.
For three years now, Doha has been the spark that’s ignited Swiatek’s season.
Two years ago, ranked No.8 at the age of 20, she blasted her way through three Top 10 players to win it for the first time. A 37-match win streak and eight titles ensued and Swiatek finished 2022 as the World No.1.
After defending her Doha crown last year, the degree of difficulty was greater. If 2022 saw Swiatek break away, 2023 was about holding off the closing pack.
There were fewer titles — though the six she did win still set the mark — and she had to win her last 11 matches of the year, but the result was the same. She finished on top of the rankings ladder once again.
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