Jelena Ostapenko ended Iga Swiatek’s three-year reign at the Qatar Open in the semifinals Friday.
No. 37-ranked Ostapenko won 6-3, 6-1 and improved her record against No. 2 Swiatek to 5-0. The Latvian is the only active player to have faced Swiatek at least twice and kept a winning record.
“I was pretty confident that I would beat her. … I know how to play against her,” Ostapenko said on court. “I’m happy with the way I’m handling my emotions this week.”
The former French Open champion will play for her ninth career WTA title, and first in a year, against Ekaterina Alexandrova or Amanda Anisimova.
Ostapenko got off to a confident start by winning the opening two games before taking a 4-2 lead en route to taking the first set. She produced an utterly dominant display in the second set to race to a 4-0 lead before wrapping up the win in just a little over an hour.
Swiatek threw her racket midway through the second set as her woes against Ostapenko continued. It was Swiatek’s first loss in Doha in 16 matches and her third defeat of the year.
Ostapenko beat No. 4 Jasmine Paolini in the second round and has two wins against top-five players in a single tournament for the first time in her career. She had said the partisan fans at the tournament were disrespectful for jeering her throughout her quarterfinal match as she eased to a straight-sets win over Tunisian Ons Jabeur.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
