Iga Swiatek started her Qatar Open title defence in strong fashion, rallying to a straight-sets victory over Maria Sakkari on Monday. (More Sports News)
🎀The Pole, who is aiming to win the tournament for the fourth successive year, triumphed 6-3 6-2 in just under an hour and a half.
♎Swiatek did not have it all her own way though. She faced five break points at the start of the first set as she found herself a break down at 3-2, but she did not stay behind for long.
ꦺShe racked up the next four games in a row, only facing one further break point, serving to love to take the first set.
⛎There was no way back for Sakkari from there as Swiatek won the first four games of the second set as well, though the world number 29 did manage to avoid a bagel scoreline.
🌊Sakkari also had to fend off a match point, though she only delayed the inevitable, as Swiatek comfortably saw out the win in the next game with little fuss.
ꦜThe world number two will face either Linda Noskova or Yulia Putintseva in the next round.
Data Debrief: Starting off strong
♊Swiatek looked fresh in her first tournament since the Australian Open, and thrived at being back in Qatar.
൩She is the player with the most wins (14) after their first 15 matches played at the Qatar Open since the event's inception in 2001, equalling Victoria Azarenka's record. She has won each of her last 13 matches in Doha and has only ever suffered one defeat at the tournament.
♉Swiatek has also won their opening match in all their last 50 WTA events played - the last time she lost an opener was at the WTA Finals in 2021 in Guadalajara, against Sakkari.
🍌The 29-year-old won her first three matches against Swiatek, but has since lost the last four, while she has failed to put together back-to-back WTA Tour match wins since the Paris Olympics.
