Iga Swiatek of Poland reacts after winning her singles match of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Danielle Collins of the US, yesterday. AFP
Doha: World No.1 Iga Swiatek barely had to sweat as she roared past American challenger Danielle Collins 6-0, 6-1 in the Round of 16, and more good news for her followed as she advanced straight to semi-finals of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open as Belinda Bencic withdrew from their quarter-final clash.
Making her first appearance since her fourth round exit at the Australian Open last month, Swiatek booked a quarter-final meeting with Bencic following her ruthless demolition of the World No.42 Collins, came in 53 minutes. Bencic, the Abu Dhabi champion, announced her withdrawal due to “fatigue” after notching a hard-fought victory over Victoria Azarenka.
Swiatek will now face either No.4 seed Coco Gauff or Veronika Kudermetova in the semi-finals tomorrow.
“I really like playing here. Honestly, it doesn’t matter what result I had last year. I just really like the conditions and. Yeah, and I enjoy the venue, the atmosphere. So it’s really a great tournament,” Swiatek, who won the title a year ago, said after yesterday’s win at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex.
“(I feel) pretty confident. I’m happy that I was kind of composed and from the beginning till the end pretty focused and disciplined with tactics. So I didn’t really let Danielle get into the rhythm. I wanted to, yeah, be aggressive. I’m pretty happy that I did that well,” she said.
Swiatek built a 3-0 lead after just 10 minutes and won the opening set in front of a cheering crowd at the centre-court, in just 21 minutes.
With the American struggling to match Swiatek’s impressive defending and accurate serving, Collins was unable to hit a winner in the opening set.
Collins leveled up in the second set, snapping Swiatek’s nine-game run to get on the board at 3-1, but the Polish star went on to seal the win without wasting much time.
Last season, her victory in Doha was the turning point in which she kicked off her 37-match win streak which put her at the top of the WTA standings. However, Swiatek said she considers this year’s tournament as a totally different chapter.
“Nothing really changed, because this is a totally different chapter, totally different tournament. I know that any of us can win it. It’s not like -- like, it was last year, so really long time passed since that, and it’s not like it happened last week. It was literally last year,” she said.
“I want to use the experience that I had last year, but I’m not really, you know, taking anything for granted or, yeah, I just know that I feel comfortable here with the conditions.
But, yeah, you know, it’s a tennis match and anything can happen. If one of us has, I don’t know, better feeling, that they can win the match, and it doesn’t really matter what happened last year,” Swiatek added.
USA's Coco Gauff hits a return shot against Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova, yesterday. Pic. Rajan Vadakkemuriyil
Earlier, yesterday, World No. 6 Coco Gauff eliminated two-time champion Petra Kvitova to open her Doha campaign with a 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) win.
“It’s pretty special. She always does well in the tournaments and yeah, she’s a fighter. And I think she showed today she was fighting and I just got kind of the close ones at the end,” Gauff said after defeating Kvitova, who won the Golden Falcon trophy in Doha in 2018 and 2021,
The 18-year-old Gauff will next face Veronika Kudermetova, clinched a 6-2, 7-5 win over former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.
American second seed Jessica Pegula beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 to book a meeting against Beatriz Haddad Maia after the Brazilian defeated sixth-seeded Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-6 (9/7).
