World number one Iga Swiatek has clinched her third Qatar Open title and made history while doing so.
Swiatek defeated Elene Rybakina in the final 7-6(8) 6-2 after a very close first set. The win is the first time any woman has claimed three Qatar Open titles.
Not only that, but the Pole’s overall statistics in Doha are staggeringly impressive. Three straight titles, 12 straight matches, and 23 straight sets won.
The result also makes her the first woman to win a WTA title three years in a row since Serena Williams at the Miami Open in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
"Coming here and being kind of the double-defending champion wasn't easy," Swiatek said after the win.
"So I'm happy that I have this experience already, and hopefully I'm going to use it.
“You don’t even know how hard it was not to think about it. I came here and I was just pretty stressed because of that because I felt the expectations." said the 22-year-old.
“But I wanted to just do everything step by step as I always do and again it worked. So thank you to my team also for keeping me on the ground and focusing on the right stuff, because achieving that is great. I’m really happy and really proud of myself.”
Swiatek didn’t get off to the best start in the match, going 4-1 down, but she credited the turnaround down to her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski’s tactics.
“I was just making too many mistakes and I was kind of panicking at the beginning not knowing what I should change,” said Swiatek.
“But the coach really had a nice idea and I just kind of trusted him and stuck to his idea and his words. I wasn’t really thinking much myself because it was hard for me to analyse perfectly. So I just trusted him and it worked.”
Swiatek has two more opportunities to pull off three-peats this year at Stuttgart and Roland Garros.
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