Iga Swiatek outlasts Elena Rybakina to clinch third consecutive title in Doha

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek reigned supreme in Doha once again after a statement 7-6 (8), 6-2 victory over Elena Rybakina to claim her 18th career title on Saturday at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open.

Playing in her first tournament since a shock third-round Australian Open exit, Swiatek quickly reestablished her dominance over the rest of the field at the season’s first WTA 1000 event. The Pole dropped only 11 games en route to the final, where she faced her biggest test against big-hitting Rybakina.

Two-time defending champion Swiatek stayed calm even amid Rybakina’s barrage of groundstrokes, as well as the swirling, windy conditions, to clinch the title without dropping a set in a two-hour and 19-minute final.

"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," Swiatek said during the trophy ceremony.

"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."

Swiatek is now the first player to win the Doha title more than two times in her career. And even more impressive is that she’s done it consecutively, winning 12 matches in a row—including 22 straight sets—at the Khalifa International Tennis Center.

WATCH: Iga Swiatek (POL) defeats Elena Rybakina (KAZ) in the 2024 Qatar Total Energies Open final

Gusty winds in Doha made it tough for both players to find their best tennis at the start of the match, with Swiatek and Rybakina preferring to go for big-margin shots. Swiatek in particular struggled to find her range against the No. 3 seed, whose powerful game has given her plenty of trouble in the past, and fell behind a double break in the first set, 1-4.

But that’s when the match’s momentum suddenly turned on a dime, and for the most unexpected reason. With Rybakina serving break point down, the player from Kazakhstan accidentally smashed her racquet into her left shin on the follow-through. The wound bled profusely and required treatment from the physio.

“I had the momentum and it was quite tough. Even though it was 4-1, we were both fighting,” Rybakina said of that break afterward.  “Of course it was a bit unlucky, because if it was not really (bleeding a lot), I would have continued, because it was not the right moment for me to stop. Unfortunately it took too long.”

Swiatek, who used the medical time out to have a chat with her coaching team including Tomasz Wiktorowski, returned more settled after the stoppage and broke serve straightaway. From there the comeback was on, as Swiatek reeled off four games in a row and held toe-to-toe with Rybakina into the first-set tiebreaker. She needed four set points, and saved one of her own at 6/7, before closing out the one hour and 27-minute long set—a set that by itself was longer than any of Swiatek’s matches leading into the final.

“I think that time really helped me to just calm down a little bit, because I wasn't sure what to do,” said Swiatek, who broke serve twice more in the second set en route to victory. “I was kind of panicking in terms of not really finding any solutions but really wanting to find them.

“My coach helped me to change the tactics a little bit so I'm going to make less mistakes.”

With the victory, Swiatek also improved to 2-3 in her head-to-head record against Rybakina, who claimed all three of her wins in a single season last year. It’s also a full-circle moment for Swiatek, as Doha was where it all began for the 22-year-old’s reign at the top of the WTA hierarchy—it was here where her 37-match winning streak kicked off in 2022.

Both players are scheduled to be back in action next week at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, a WTA 1000 tournament that kicks off on Sunday, February 18. Swiatek is set to be the No. 1 seed, and Rybakina is seeded fourth.