On Saturday, February 17, the final of the WTA-1000 tournament took place in Doha (Qatar), the first competition in this category of the season. The four-time Grand Slam champion, the world number one, the Polish Iga Swiatek, first seed, and the 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina (3), representing Kazakhstan, arrived in the decisive match.
Swiatek had a relatively easy run throughout the tournament. In the first round she received a bye, then she beat Sorana Cîrstu, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Victoria Azarenka without losing a set, losing in total only 11 games, and in the semi-finals she rested, like Karolina Pliskova, who could not stand the hustle and bustle. schedule, she withdrew due to fatigue.
Rybakina had a bit more difficult times. He didn’t play three games, but four. At the same time, in the third round she beat Emma Navarro in just three matches, and in the semifinals she did not rest, but instead played with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6: 2, 6: 4.
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For Iga, this final was the 22nd of his career. Furthermore, in the previous 21 matches he had excellent statistics: 17 wins and only four losses. Elena could not boast of such successes. She approached the match against polka with a 7-9 record in the final. But in her personal meetings her advantage was already on Rybakina’s side: 3-1. Iga won the quarter-finals at Ostrava 2021 and Jelena had three wins last season: in the round of 16 at the Australian Open, in the semi-finals at Indian Wells and in the quarter-finals in Rome (although there was a rejection from Swiatek in the decisive match). game).
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Before the final, Rybakina paid tribute to her rival. “Iga is a great champion. This will be very difficult. I will try to have fun and do everything possible,” Elena is quoted by The Tennis Letter. At the same time, the 1995 Davis Cup finalist Andrei Chesnokov expressed the opinion that the representative of Kazakhstan has a good chance of winning. “Now that Swiatek is in good shape, the match will be interesting. I think Rybakina is an inconvenient opponent for her. Lena has a good chance of winning,” TASS quotes Chesnokov.
Elena Rybakina
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Swiatek, who served in the first game, failed at the beginning of the match, making mistakes in the rallies. The Polish player only took one point and Rybakina started the final with a break. In the second game, Iga was able to regain his balance (his opponent also did not always perform impeccably on serve), but he missed both break points and Elena confirmed the break for 2-0. In the fifth game, Swiatek again made unsuccessful service plays, continuing to accumulate unforced errors, and Rybakina converted a double break point on her second attempt (4:1).
In the sixth game, the representative of Kazakhstan took a medical break at 30:30. While she was serving, Elena accidentally caught her leg on the racket, her blood started flowing and her scratch had to be repaired.
Elena Rybakina’s medical break
Photo: frame of the transmission.
When play resumed, Rybakina gave up two moves and Swiatek made the first break of the match for 4:2. The Polish player started the seventh game with 30-0, but then she made mistakes again and Rybakina even had a break point (i.e. a hidden set point), but she did not take advantage of it. And in the next game, Elena, like Iga before, began to make mistakes on her serve, she only took one point and the score was equal: 4: 4.
The end of the set was quite tense. In the ninth game, Rybakina again faced a break point, but failed. But in the 11th, on the third break point, she got her goal after Swiatek hit the net and came out to serve for the set. But she couldn’t do it. At the end of the game Elena shot into the net, and then Iga also played excellently in reception (6:6). The tie-break was played with the Polish player’s advantage: she was ahead almost the entire time, at 6:4 she missed a double set point, then, already at 7:6, Rybakina did not take advantage of the set point and The game (from the fourth set point!) remained in the hands of Iga, who towards the end the attacking actions began to be successful – 7:6 (10:8) in 1 hour 27 minutes.
At the beginning of the second game, Rybakina broke her serve and in the second game Swiatek saved both break points (1:1). In the third game, Elena made an unacceptable number of errors in the rallies and the Polish player put pressure on her from the fourth break point (2:1 with break). This moment decided everything, as Iga confidently took the remaining games on her serve. Furthermore, in the seventh game she made a second break, taking advantage of Rybakina’s errors and his evident fatigue, and at 5-2 she went out to serve to win the title. In the final game, Swiatek took advantage of the second match point: 7:6 (10:8), 6:2 in 2 hours and 16 minutes.
Thus, Swiatek, who won the main trophy in Doha for the third time in a row (although this tournament does not always have the status of a “thousand tournament”, alternating with Dubai), won the first title of the season and the 18th in his career. In addition, this trophy was already his seventh in the “thousands”, after Rome 2021, Doha 2022, Indian Wells 2022, Miami 2022, Rome 2022 and Beijing 2023. However, in the general historical table of titles in tournaments of this category (including those that belonged to them before the 2021 reorganization), Iga remains inferior to the leaders.
Leaders in titles in WTA-1000 tournaments
Pos.Tennis playerA countryTitles1SERENA WILLIAMSESTADOS UNIDADOS232 MARTINA HINGISSUIZIZA173STEFFI GRAFALEMANIA154MARIA SHARAPOVARUSIA145LINDSAY DOMPORTED UNITED116JUSTINE HENINBÉLGICA10 … VICTORIA AZARENKABIELORUSIA108 CONC IA9 … PETRA KVITOVACHECA IYA9
And on Sunday, February 18, the second “thousandth” of the season begins in Dubai (UAE). Eight Russians made it to the main draw. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.
