Maria Sakkari reacts after defeating Iga Swiatek.
Doha: Maria Sakkari ended Iga Swiatek’s bid for a fourth Qatar TotalEnergies title with a hard-fought quarter-final win at the in Doha yesterday.
The Greek star, ranked 50 spots below Swiatek, battled past the world No. 2 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 in a two-hour 29-minute-long contest to book her place in the last four.
“You are always the underdog when playing against the No. 2 in the world, especially where I’m coming from. But I kept telling myself, even after the first set, that I was playing good tennis, and that I had to stick to my game plan and the way I was playing. I was aggressive, I was brave, and it worked out really well,” a jubilant Sakkari said during a post-match press conference at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
Swiatek held off a late fightback to take the first set, but Sakkari raised her level in the following set and forced a decider. The Greek broke early in the third, survived a brief comeback, and sealed victory on her third match point after a tense finish.
The result leaves their head-to-head record locked at 4-4.
Sakkari had taken the first three meetings of their rivalry. But since then, Swiatek had turned the tide, winning the next four clashes, including a straight-sets victory in Doha last year.
Sakkari said she is trying to get back to her top level.
“It’s pretty similar because I’m trying to achieve the same goal. I’m trying to obviously come back to the top of the game. I feel like the only way of doing it is beating those players,” the former World No.3 said.
“That’s the same thing I did when I was at the same ranking a few years ago. Obviously now with a lot more experience, and a lot more, you know, being more patient, I would say,” Sakkari said.
Meanwhile, top seed Swiatek was trying to figure out what went wrong.
“I will need to for sure watch and analyze. For sure, I could have sometimes made better decisions,” Swiatek said.
“Maria also played well. She played well in defense and brought back many shots that against another player would be a winner,” she added.
Sakkari will face Zcech Karolina Muchova or Russian Anna Kalinskaya for a place in the title clash.
In another quarter-final yesterday, Victoria Mboko continued her dream run in Doha with another statement win. The 19-year-old Canadian stunned world No. 3 Elena Rybakina 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 to advance.
Seeded 10th, Mboko has now beaten two top-10 players this week, having saved a match point in the previous round before knocking out Russian world No. 7 Mirra Andreeva. She will face last year’s runner-up Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who blazed past Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto 7-5, 6-4.
