Sakkari fights back to eliminate top seed Swiatek in Doha

Maria Sakkari outplayed top seed Iga Swiatek across the second and third sets to secure a 2-6 6-4 7-5 victory and advance to the Qatar TotalEnergies Open semifinals for the third time in her career and the first time in three years.

The former world No. 3 Sakkari dropped serve twice in the first set, with Swiatek winning five straight games to close out the set in 33 minutes.

From the start of the second set, the momentum shifted. Sakkari moved ahead quickly, winning the first three games to establish a 3-0 advantage. Swiatek later recovered the break to draw level at 4-4, but Sakkari responded by claiming the next two games to take the set 6-4 and extend the match.

The deciding set followed a similar pattern. Sakkari secured the first break, only for Swiatek to respond and level the score. That sequence repeated, with Swiatek twice coming back from a break down to reach 5-5. At that point, Sakkari held serve at love and then broke Swiatek once more in the final game. She converted her second match point to complete a 2-6 6-4 7-5 victory in approximately two and a half hours.

The win sends Sakkari into the Doha semifinals for the third time in her career and her first appearance at that stage of the tournament in three years. It also marks her first victory over Swiatek in five years, ending a four-match losing streak between the two on the WTA Tour. With the result, their head-to-head record now stands level at 4-4.

In the other quarterfinals, Jelena Ostapenko advanced with a 7-5 6-4 win over lucky loser Elisabetta Cocciaretto to reach her fourth Doha semifinal. She will next face Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko, who came from 4-2 down in the third set to defeat No. 2 seed and reigning Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina 7-5 4-6 6-4, snapping the Kazakhstani’s nine-match winning streak and reaching her second WTA 1000 semifinal.