Swiatek Among Surprise Makers

DOHA, THURSDAY—The WTA 1000 Doha women's tennis tournament has four remaining players who will compete in the semifinals. The champion of the last three years, Iga Swiatek, is among the players who have eliminated top ten seeds on their way to the semifinals.

Swiatek will face Jelena Ostapenko at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, Doha, Qatar, on Friday (14/2/2025). The other semifinal will feature Ekaterina Alexandrova and Amanda Anisimova.

Swiatek advanced to the last four after defeating one of her fiercest rivals, Elina Rybakina, 6-2, 7-5 in the quarterfinals on Thursday. In a repeat of the 2024 WTA Doha final, Swiatek came from 2-4 down and saved two break points from Rybakina to level at 4-4 in the second round.

"I am proud of myself because facing Elena is never easy. At the beginning of the second set, she raised her level of play, so I did the same," said Swiatek.

However, that pride must soon be set aside because Swiatek will face an equally difficult challenge in the semifinals, even though Ostapenko's performance is not as good as it was eight years ago when she won the French Open. The head-to-head statistics show that Swiatek has always lost to the Latvian player in their four encounters, one of which was in their last meeting in the fourth round of the 2023 US Open.

"I have to be prepared to face difficult shots and tricks," said Swiatek, about the challenges she will face in the semifinals. If she can defeat Ostapenko for the first time, Swiatek will maintain her chances of winning the WTA Doha for the fourth consecutive time and securing her 23rd WTA title, but the first since the French Open in June 2024.

Except for Swiatek and Ostapenko, as finalists of the WTA Doha 2016, Alexandrova and Anisimova will compete in their first semifinal in one of the 11 WTA 1000 level tournaments. Another similarity between Alexandrova, Anisimova, and Ostapenko is their status as unseeded players who made surprising progress to reach the semifinals.

Ostapenko, who defeated Ons Jabeur with a score of 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Thursday, eliminated the fourth seed, Jasmine Paolini, in the third round. Paolini is a finalist of the 2024 French Open and Wimbledon Grand Slam.

Anisimova, a 2019 French Open semifinalist, defeated ninth seed Paula Badosa in the second round. Alexandrova, in fact, eliminated two seeds, Aryna Sabalenka (1) in the second round and Jessica Pegula (6) in the quarterfinals. She won 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 over Pegula.

Her performance in Doha follows Alexandrova's recent good form. In the first week of February, the world number 26 achieved a career-high, winning the WTA 500 Linz.

"When I saw the Doha draw, I thought that my journey would not be too far. Right now, I feel happy with my performance here and I want to keep it up as long as possible. I will do what I did in the quarter-finals, focus on taking one point at a time," Alexandrova said. (AFP)