Iga Swiatek kept her Qatar Open title hopes alive on Wednesday, coming from behind to beat Daria Kasatkina.
After dropping the first set, Swiatek found her rhythm and dominated the next two sets, winning 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. She had already impressed in her opener against Janice Tjen and backed that up with another strong performance.
The Polish star will now take on Maria Sakkari later today. Swiatek holds a narrow 4-3 lead in their head-to-head record, most recently defeating the Greek at this event last year.
Even without lifting the trophy in Doha yet, Swiatek has still broken new ground. The six-time major champion has moved past one of Serena Williams’ records at just 24 years old.
Iga Swiatek sets new WTA quarter-final record
According to OptaAce, Swiatek has now reached the quarter-finals in 26 of the 42 WTA-1000 events she has played in, surpassing Serena Williams for the most since the format began in 2009.
Swiatek has reached the quarter-finals in these events at a rate of 61.9 per cent. By comparison, Williams made it to the last eight at 30 of the 49 WTA-1000 tournaments she entered, a rate of 61.2 per cent.
Swiatek will go into her next match against Sakkari with plenty of confidence, having won four straight matches against the Greek player dating back to the 2022 Qatar Open.
Looking ahead to their next meeting, Swiatek said: “Overall I think my level improved in 2022 so I could do a bit more, had more variety and could push a little bit more.
“But against Maria it’s always tough. It’s always like every game matters, every point matters.”
Sakkari defeated Varvara Gracheva to set up her meeting with Swiatek and spoke about how difficult playing Iga is: “Iga is very solid but at the same time, she’s very aggressive.”
“She moves really well on court and doesn’t give away many errors. It’s going to be a huge challenge for me,” Sakkari added.
“When we played last year here, it was an easy score but it wasn’t an easy match, I have to say.”
Swiatek’s numbers from the win over Kasatkina
There’s been a clear focus in training on her serve, and that showed up in this match.
The Pole fired seven aces, hit 63 percent of her first serves, and won 64 percent of those points. She also took 55 percent of her second-serve points and broke serve eight times from 18 chances.
Kasatkina had a tough time with her own delivery, hitting just one ace and taking only 28 percent of second-serve points.
If Swiatek gets past Maria Sakkari, she’ll face either Karolina Muchova or Anna Kalinskaya for a place in the final.
And if she does reach the title match, her opponent will come from a group that includes Elena Rybakina, Victoria Mboko, Jelena Ostapenko or Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
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