Qatar Open: Swiatek tops Rybakina in quarters for 15th win in a row in Doha

Threetime defending champion and former World No1 Iga Swiatek returned to the semifinals with a 62 75 win over Elena Rybakina in Thursdays quarterfinals here recording her 15th straight win at the tournament overallIn a rematch of last years championship match Swiatek came from 42 down in the second set and saved two break points at 44 before eventually wrapping up a straightsets victory in 1 hour and 36 minutesThe win is Swiateks 100th at WTA 1000 level in 121 matches played making her the secondfastest to the milestone after Serena Williams who played 115 WTA 1000 matches to do itAfter beating Rybakina at last months United Cup Swiatek has now levelled her alltime headtohead against the Kazakh to 44 and she continues on her quest to be just the second WTA player since 2000 to win four straight titles at a single eventAlso ReadGill gains one place to move to 2nd Rohit at 3rd in latest ICC ODI rankingsBut Swiatek will need to get a first win in five tries against Jelena Ostapenko the 2016 Doha finalist for another spot in the final match Ostapenko defeated Ons Jabeur in Thursdays third quarterfinal 62 62 to book her own spot in the semifinals In another quarterfinal unseeded Ekaterina Alexandrova stormed into the semifinals by stunning American sixth seed Jessica Pegula of the United States 46 61 61 in a onehour 42minute clashBut the focus was on Swiatek as she was looking to set a couple of records After a 36minute first set where Swiatek won the first three games and never faced a break point Rybakina converted on her second chance in the opening game to set a new tone for the matchWhat followed was an hourlong set in which Rybakina bent but never broke at least at first She saved two break points in her first service game to lead 20 and three more the next time she stepped to the line to extend her advantage to 31 But handed a sixth break point in the set at 43 1540 it was Swiateks turn to come up with clutch play As Rybakina charged the net off of a welltimed backhand Swiatek whipped a forehand past her for the break backIn the deciding game Swiatek hammered a crosscourt backhand return winner off of a short second serve to deny Rybakina a tiebreak and the contest ended two points later when the No 5 seed served up just her second double fault in the match overallWhile Swiatek will be hoping for her own sort of revenge when she faces Ostapenko next the Latvian got revenge of her own with an easy dispatch of Jabeur in just 71 minutes after Swiatek sealed her own victory Ostapenko lost to Jabeur last week at the WTA 500 Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open 764 75 which put her seasons singles record at 14But with four straightset victories this week including upsets of No 4 seed Jasmine Paolini and No 16 seed Liudmila Samsonova the 2017 Roland Garros champion has found her form in singles after starting the year with strong doubles runs like a runnerup finish at the Australian Open with Hsieh SuWei and a win in Abu Dhabi with Ellen PerezThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever