World No. 1 Iga Swiatek defeats Elena Rybakina to claim first title of the season at Qatar Open
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Updated 17/02/2024 at 20:55 GMT
Women's tennis world No. 1 Iga Swiatek lifted her first trophy of the season when she won the Qatar Open on Saturday. The Polish player was up against world No. 3, Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina, and she won a hard-fought first set on a tie-break before claiming the second set 6-2. Rybakina was making her third final appearance of the season and it is her first defeat at this stage in 2024.
Iga Swiatek
Image credit: Getty Images
Iga Swiatek won her first title of the season when she beat world No. Elena Rybakina 7-6(10-8) 6-2 at the Qatar Open final on Saturday.
Swiatek had enjoyed an extended break to prepare for the match-up as she was able to progress with a walkover against Karolina Pliskova in the semi-finals.
Rybakina, meanwhile, defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenko in straight sets in her semi on Saturday.
The Qatar Open was the Kazakh’s third first final of the season after winning the Brisbane International and the Abu Dhabi Open, and for Swiatek it also offered the chance to land a trophy for the new season.
The first set appeared to be heading in Rybakina's favour as she broke twice to lead 4-1, but she suffered a cut to her leg and needed a medical timeout.
That allowed Swiatek to take the initiative and she moved back to parity at 4-4.
The pair then broke one another again to go to a tie-break decider.
The two slogged at one another until Swiatek came away with the first set 10-8 after moving to set point with a backhand winner.
Swiatek built on that momentum when she broke her opponent in the third set, and moved 3-1 up before breaking again to go 5-2 clear, a game from winning her first trophy of the season.
The world No. 1 then held serve - delivering just her second ace of the whole match - to wrap up the second set 6-2 and claim her third consecutive Doha title.
Speaking after her win, Swiatek said: "I'm happy that I kept working and just didn't really think about too many stuff during this week and just focused on the right things, because I think it was the key.
"Coming here and being kind of the double-defending champion wasn't easy. So I'm happy that I have this experience already, and hopefully I'm going to use it."
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