Iga Swiatek retained her Qatar TotalEnergies Open title with ease on Sunday. Playing the final against second seed Jessica Pegula, the world no. 1 took merely an hour and nine minutes to secure a 6-3, 6-0 win for herself.
Swiatek won 72% of her first-serve points and 50% of her second-serve points. The top-seeded Pole also won 53% points on return on the American’s first serve and 74% points on return on the latter’s second serve. Swiatek did drop her serve twice across the match, once in each set but went on to convert a total of six break points on Pegula’s serve. The 21-year-old finished the match with 59 points to her opponent’s 34.
Qatar TotalEnergies Open: Iga Swiatek’s dominance begins anew
Speaking after the win, Swiatek shared, “I’m really happy that I could kind of find more balance, comparing to how I felt at the beginning of the season. I think this tournament is going to give me a lot of confidence, but still, I want to take everything step by step. I’m just really happy that I could win this match today.”
She also added, “Every game I was really focused, and that’s the thing I’m most happy about, because at the beginning of the season I felt like my mind was kind of flying away sometimes. But here, the work we have put in with my coach on court and with Daria off the court, for sure, it just paid off, and I felt like everything is clicking.”
The title in the Qatar capital’s the first Swiatek’s won in the 2023 season. At the Australian Open in January where she was the overwhelming favourite, the three-time Major champion lost in the round-of-16 to eventual winner, Elena Rybakina.
Iga Swiatek, who received a walkover into the semi-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open this week, conceded only five games across the three matches she played. The most number of games she lost this week came in the final against Jessica Pegula. She won her first two rounds with the same score margin of 6-0, 6-1.
Photo Credit: Iga Swiatek Twitter
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