Bengaluru/Doha, February 26: An all-top 10 championship match will take place on Saturday (February 26) in Doha when Estonia's Anett Kontaveit takes on Poland's Iga Swiatek in the final of the WTA 1000 Qatar TotalEnergies Open.
Their head-to-head is level at 2-2, but Swiatek has won the last two matches which took place last year at Roland Garros and the US Open.
Seventh seed Swiatek notched a breakthrough win over one of her toughest opponents at the hard-courts of Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex on Friday (February 25) evening, defeating sixth seed Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals while Kontaveit sailed past Latvia's former French Open champion and 15th seed Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 6-4 in the other last-four enounter.
Qatar Open: Swiatek sends top seed Sabalenka packing
On Saturday in Doha, 2020 Roland Garros champion Swiatek will be going for her fourth career WTA singles title while Kontaveit seeks her seventh as curtains will come down on the season's first WTA 1000 event in the Qatari capital.
The Doha final is a stellar match-up, featuring the WTA's longest current win streak (nine straight matches by Kontaveit) and some big-tournament play from Swiatek - the only player to reach the semifinals at the two most important events of 2022 so far.
Kontaveit has nine consecutive wins and going back to the beginning of the 2021 season has more WTA victories, 60, than anyone
The 26-year-old has also reached seven finals in the past dozen events she has played.
"I'm very happy that we managed to keep this consistent level up," Kontaveit said in her on-court interview after beating Ostapenko. "Really happy to be doing well at these big tournaments, playing against the best players in the world, having a good time on court and I think that's the thing I'm most happy about."
Swiatek, who is advancing to the Doha final for the first time and knows the challenges waiting her.
"I felt like (Kontaveit and I) always had good rhythm maybe on court, and that's why the rallies were long," said Swiatek. "We were kind of even in everything.
Qatar Open: Sabalenka sets up Swiatek clash
"I don't know how it's going to be right now, because the last match I played against her was basically before she had that great streak at the end of last year. I'll be ready for anything, honestly. Every match is a different story.
"Anett showed she's really consistent and I really respect that, because how she played during the past few months, it's been amazing. I just hope it's going to be a good show. I hope I'm going to be able to play my game and just look forward," added Swiatek, who has has now notched up seven top-10 wins in her career, and two consecutively this week in Doha after knocking off top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, the all-American pairing of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula had a superb week in Doha as the unseeded duo took the doubles title with a 3-6, 7-5, 10-5 (super tie-breaker) victory over third seeds Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium.
Gauff and Pegula staged a comeback win in an hour and 40 minutes to claim the title at the WTA 1000 event, ending the seven-match winning streak of Kudermetova and Mertens, who won the Dubai title last week.
(With WTA inputs)
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