Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading

Swiatek sweeps past Pegula to win back-to-back Qatar titles

Best defence: Iga Swiatek celebrates defeating Jessica Pegula in the final . ©AFP

Doha (AFP) - World number one Iga Swiatek won her second successive Qatar Open title on Saturday, sweeping past Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-0 in the final.

It was the Pole's first title of 2023 and 12th of her career.

The reigning French and US Open champion, Swiatek dropped just five games all week on her way to the Doha title.

Swiatek completed victory over world number four Pegula in just 69 minutes to take her career head-to-head over the American to 5-2.

Doha remains a special place for Swiatek -- last year her title triumph in the Qatari capital sparked a 37-match winning streak which culminated in her second Grand Slam title at the French Open.

"I'm really happy that I could kind of find more balance, comparing to how I felt at the beginning of the season," Swiatek said, after her win. 

"I think this tournament is going to give me a lot of confidence, but still, I want to take everything step by step.I'm just really happy that I could win this match today."

Swiatek next makes the short journey to the UAE for the Dubai WTA tournament which gets underway on Sunday.

If nothing else, she'll be hoping the playing conditions are easier than in Doha where high winds presented challenges all week.

"Yesterday it kind of hit me that even though it's windy, I can use the wind properly," said the 21-year-old.

"I kind of use my intuition to sometimes imagine that I should play shorter, or on the other hand, play with more topspin so the wind is going to kind of take this ball even further.

"So today I just kind of continued that, but I didn't really want to overanalyze that, and I just kind of played how my intuition told me."

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.