Iga Swiatek Overcomes Elena Rybakina To Win Third Consecutive Qatar Open Title

iga swiatek overcomes elena rybakina to win third consecutive qatar open title

World No.1 Iga Swiatek won the year’s first WTA 1000 title at the Qatar Open on Saturday after beating World No.4 Elena Rybakina 7-6(8), 6-2 in the finals.

With her Qatar Open 2024 title, Swiatek became the first player in nearly nine years to win a WTA Tour event three consecutive times. This was her 18th career singles title, and her first of the 2024 season.

Before this week, the most recent player to win a WTA tournament three times in a row was longtime World No.1 Serena Williams, when the American claimed her third straight Miami Open title in 2015. But the current World No.1 Swiatek matched that feat with her three-peat in Doha.

The tennis star from Poland now holds a 13-1 career win-loss record at Qatar. Her only loss at this event was in the 2020 second round to Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Her victory on Saturday also kept Swiatek’s set-winning streak at the tournament alive. Swiatek has now won 23 sets in a row in Doha; her last set lost at the event was the second set of her 2022 opening-round clash against Viktorija Golubic.

Story of the Match

In the first set, Rybakina broke Swiatek twice to lead 4-1. However, the No.3 seed had to stop in the middle of that game for a medical time-out after she accidentally cut her leg with her racquet at the end of her service motion.

After that, Swiatek pulled back to level footing at 4-4, but Rybakina regrouped by breaking the top seed for 6-5, grabbing a chance to serve out the set. Thereafter, outstanding overheads by Swiatek helped her break Rybakina once more, sending the set into a tiebreak.

In the decisive breaker, heavy hitting by both players led to an 8-8 deadlock, after three set points for Swiatek and one for Rybakina went begging.

However, a rally backhand winner by Swiatek gave the World No.1 her fourth set point at 9-8, and that one was converted with a passing winner off the backhand side.