Iga Swiatek breezes into Qatar Open final with dominant win over Veronika Kudermetova to face Jessica Pegula
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Updated 17/02/2023 at 17:30 GMT
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek played some stunning tennis as she took a dominant semi-final win over Veronika Kudermetova at the Qatar Open. It means the 21-year-old Pole will play in her 12th WTA final. Swiatek will face Jessica Pegula in Doha on Saturday, after she came through a hard fought battle against Maria Sakkari. For both players, it's their first final of 2023.
Swiatek has to 'work on how to handle pressure' - Radwanska
Iga Swiatek breezed into the Qatar Open final with a dominant 6-0 6-1 win over Veronika Kudermetova.
Swiatek had a walkover into the semi-finals after Belinda Bencic withdrew from the tournament due to fatigue on Thursday.
She will play Jessica Pegula in Saturday’s final following the American’s much tougher victory against Maria Sakkari.
“I feel great,” said Swiatek, who has dropped just two games in the two matches she’s played in Doha.
“I was pretty worried about how I would cope with the conditions today. I played in a smart way and I’m happy I was so solid.
“It always takes a lot to win against Jessica, she’s a great player. We’ll see what happens, I’m not going to predict anything or overanalyse, I’m just going to go and play my best tennis.”
Swiatek immediately took advantage of her first break point opportunity against Kudermetova in the second game of the match, which only kicked her on.
The world No. 1 dropped just seven matches as she completed a bagel in the opening set in just 25 minutes.
It was a similar story in the second set as Swiatek overpowered Kudermetova, who also made too many unforced errors.
Kudermetova did manage to win one game early in the second but that was as good as it got for her with Swiatek showing no signs of any let up to win in less than an hour.
Pegula battles past Sakkari
It was a much tighter affair in the other semi-final which saw Pegula defeat Sakkari 6-2 4-6 6-1 in a rollercoaster match played in very windy conditions.
Pegula was seemingly going to win in straight sets as she was 6-2 4-2 up, but Sakkari began to hit her groundstrokes better and won four games in a row to steal the second set.
After two breaks of serve at the start of the deciding set, Pegula stepped it up and won five consecutive games to reach her sixth WTA final.
"That was probably the hardest conditions I've ever had to play in, wind-wise," she said after the mach.
"It was really, really tough. I'm glad I didn't get too frustrated. I think I played very smart. I’m so excited [for the final]. I can’t ask for a better week.”
The 28-year-old is also in the doubles final with Coco Gauff, with the pair taking on Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko.
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