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World No. 1 Iga Swiatek has become the first player to reach three consecutive hardcourt finals in a single hardcourt event since Serena Williams. The Pole has entered her third consecutive final at the Qatar Open in Doha following the withdrawal of her semifinal opponent Karolina Pliskova.
Swiatek, the defending champion at the Qatar Open, would be looking for a rare 'three-peat', having won the event in 2022 and 2023. Pliskova withdrew from the semifinals due to a lower back injury.
Serena Williams featured in three consecutive Australian Open finals between 2015 and 2017. The Major is played on a hardcourt at Melbourne Park. While Williams won the event in 2015 and 2017, she lost to the German Angelique Kerber in 2016.
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The Pole is yet to lose a set at the tournament. Incredibly, she has won a set 6-1 on three different occasions at the event. She even bagelled the former two-time Qatar Open champion Victoria Azarenka in the second set in the quarterfinals.
The World No. 1 produced a stellar show at the tournament in 2023 where she entered as the defending champion and won all her matches in straight sets. Swiatek won with a 6-0 (bagel) scoreline in at least one set against all her opponents.
Swiatek has also lost only one set so far in the last three years at the tournament. The loss of a single set came against Viktorija Golubic in the opening round in 2022.
With her win over Azarenka in the quarterfinals, the Pole made it 11 straight match victories at the event. She now has a 12-1 record at Doha and has won 21 straight sets at the tournament. Her only loss at the event came in the second round in 2020 to Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Swiatek will be competing with Serena Williams for yet another record. She will be bidding to become the second player to win a WTA event three consecutive times since Williams, who won the Miami Open between 2013 and 2015.
Iga Swiatek to face Elena Rybakina for the title at Qatar Open
Iga Swiatek will face Elena Rybakina in the finals of the Qatar Open. Rybakina beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the semifinals in straight sets.
The Pole has a 1-3 record against Rybakina. Incidentally, Rybakina has won her last three matches against Swiatek with all her victories coming in 2023. The victories came in the fourth round of the Australian Open, the semifinals of Indian Wells, and the quarterfinals of Rome. The Kazakh is also fresh from her title win in Abu Dhabi - another WTA 1000 event.
The Qatar Open title clash would also be Swiatek's first final in a singles event in 2024. She led Poland to the United Cup finals at the beginning of the year. The United Cup is a global men's and women's team event that is played in Australia. At the 2024 Australian Open, the World No. 1 lost to Czech teenager Linda Noskova in the third round.
Swiatek would be aiming for her seventh WTA-1000 title at the 2024 Qatar Open. Interestingly, she is the only player to have won six WTA-1000 titles before the age of 23 since the format was introduced in 2009. She claimed her first WTA-1000 title at the Italian Open in 2021 and her latest triumph in the format came at the China Open in 2023.
